'An Actual Arby's' Preferable To Flatbush Homes Plan, Critics Say

EAST FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — Developers revealed plans for a modern five-story apartment building going up in the middle of a row of Victorian houses on Linden Boulevard.

Arbie Development took to Instagram to share the rendering of a new complex with switchback bay windows, a brick and wood facade, and a rooftop terrace currently going up at 280 Linden Boulevard.

Owner Alex Halimi bought the site in 2015 and hired architect firm Infocus to build the eight-family building, city records show.

Every apartment will have hardwood floors, "top-of-the-line custom kitchens," and access to a roof deck that towers three-stories above neighboring buildings, said an Arbie representative.

“We love our new project,” the Brooklyn-based developers wrote. “It’s balanced, it has movement and we just want to live there. Don’t you?”

While Arbie’s Instagram followers responded with positive feedback, writing it was "absolutely beautiful," a Flatbushed blog post noted the building seemed out of context on Linden Boulevard.

“An actual Arby’s – the Delaware rest stop variety – would arguably have been less of a visual imposition,” Flatbushed wrote.

But Flatbushed did appreciate developer’s depiction of Linden Boulevard residents, and went so far as to imagine what the digitally rendered people might be thinking.

A man in the bottom right corner was dubbed Noah and imagined to be a DIY-maven who bought his Victorian home for $67 and had fought tirelessly to stop the proposed development from going up.

“Noah bellowed himself hoarse at municipal meetings but was slowly forced to accept his own impotence,” Flatbushed quipped.

“Noah is now reduced to glaring at the edifice and conjuring dark, retributive fantasies. He still hosts eclectic dinner parties, but any discussion of the cartoonish behemoth next door is studiously avoided by guests.”

Flatbushed also mused that a man standing in the window of a top floor apartment, “settled on Flatbush after one magical afternoon at Smorgasbord and a successful follow-up brunch at Blessings.”

Photo courtesy of Arbie Development, used with permission