City Planners Skeptical As Bed-Stuy Apartment Tower Moves Forward

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Plans for a 14-story apartment tower on the former CABS Nursing Home site will likely need to change to gain the approval of city officials, planners warned as the proposal started the review process.

The City Planning Commission certified an application Monday for 270 Nostrand Ave., where developers BRP Companies hope to change zoning rules to build 487 apartments, about a third of which would be designated as affordable.

But the certification — a largely ceremonial step noting the application is submitted and ready to start the review process known as ULURP — came with a disclaimer from the City Planning Department that it will need to be revised before facing them for a vote.

"The department has advised this applicant that while we believe this is an appropriate site for a significant upzoning, the applicant's proposed...density raises bulk and massing concerns at this location," said Commission Chair and City Planning Director Marisa Largo. "We look forward to seeing how this project evolves during the ULURP process."

Largo noted that Bed-Stuy's Community Board 3 have expressed similar concerns about the current proposal. Community Board members told developers earlier this year they'd rather a 10-story building with even deeper levels of affordability, according to BKLYNER.

As it stands, the 144 affordable apartments would go to those making 115 percent of the area median income, or an average of $89,000 for a family of three.

"The applicant has communicated the need for workforce-income level housing for more moderate- income families where their income is too high for the large NYCHA developments in the area or the deeper affordable and too low for market rate," Borough Planner Josh Vogel told the commission.

The site, which has stood empty since the nursing home was demolished in 2018, would also include nearly 11,000 square feet of retail and 1,128 square feet of community space, plans show.

The City Planning Commission and Community Board 3 pushback is not the first resistance developers have run into for the Nostrand Avenue project.

The owners of the site, a subsidiary of the Allure Group, have been sued twice since buying it in 2015, once by one if its lenders and by the operators of the nursing home, who said their landlord misrepresented plans for the property, according to BKLYNER.

BRP told the outlet that Allure plans to transfer ownership of the site to BRP, who filed the rezoning application.

The next step for the 270 Nostrand Ave. proposal will be with Community Board 3's Land Use Committee.