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Email updates Twitter Facebook RSS FeedsThe owner of a century-old former NYPD stationhouse in Brooklyn Heights has scrapped his plans to convert the building into apartments, and two schools are vying to lease the long dormant space in its entirety.
New residential development in DUMBO has caused the student body at nearby PS 8 to grow exponentially in the last two years, said Brooklyn Heights Association Executive Director Judy Stanton. With almost 500 students enrolled, the school has reached its capacity and needs to expand.
Similarly, the League Treatment Center, which has provided education and treatment for children and adults with learning disabilities and emotional problems since 1953, needs more space to continue its programs and is planning to move from its DUMBO location at 30 Washington St. when its current lease expires.
Both schools have expressed an interest in leasing the circa-1913 precinct house, owned by Regal Investments, which acquired the 72 Poplar St. building at a 2004 city auction for $9.6 million.
Maurice Laboz, Regal’s owner, bought the building without knowing that it was within the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, which barred him from building anything over 50 feet or altering the façade in any way.
In 2005, Laboz briefly put the stationhouse on the market with an asking price of $15 million. He quickly changed his mind and continued to gut the interior for residential purposes.
Now that those renovations are substantially complete, Laboz wants to rent the 30,000-square-foot building to a single tenant, said Bill Punch, a partner and spokesman for Regal Investments.
©2007 Community Newspaper Group
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