July 17, 2008: Vol. 31, No. 28
Past issues
The Paper in print
RSS feeds
Print edition (PDF)
Email Alerts- The current issue
- Neighborhood Map
- Bay Ridge
- Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
- Brooklyn Heights
- Downtown, DUMBO
- Carroll Gardens
- Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
- Fort Greene
- Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
- North Brooklyn
- Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
- Park Slope
- Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
- GO Brooklyn
- Brooklyn Cyclones
- Not Just Nets
- Police Blotter
- Perspective
- Parenting
- Politics
- Transit
- Podcasts
- The Brooklyn Bride
- Brooklyn Boom
- Classifieds
- Merchant news
- About The Paper
- RSS Feeds
-
A rendering of the proposed 12-story apartment building (left) that would rise next to the Brooklyn Lyceum (right) on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope.
Enlarge this imageSimilar stories
Print this story
digg
del.icio.usAt long last, there is a plan for an empty lot next to the Brooklyn Lyceum in Park Slope, though it has meant the demise of an old trolley that sat there for 13 years.
Crews disassembled the trolley this week — a relic from the Philadelphia mass transit system that was, at one point, going to be a diner — to make room for architect Jean G. Miele’s 12-story, 40-unit structure on Fourth Avenue.
Construction is expected to be completed by the spring, when tenants will start moving into the small studios and one- and two-bedroom units.
But behind the construction fencing and the architectural renderings lies a story of two friends destroyed by ambition, dreams and money.
Eric Richmond, who owns the Lyceum next door, first purchased the quirky L-shaped site between President and Union streets in 1994. Starting in 2000, Miele helped Richmond completely overhaul the Lyceum, but when Richmond couldn’t pay off Miele’s $500,000 loan, the men decided that Miele would get the deed to the adjacent lot instead, with the stipulation that Richmond could repurchase it within a year.
But the deadline came and went, and Richmond didn’t pay — so Miele got the land.
Richmond sued and lost — and Miele is starting work, including dismantling the trolley.
Most neighbors don’t know the backstory. They’re just saddened by the destruction of the trolley.
“We hate to see a piece of history lost from the neighborhood,” said Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman.
©2008 The Brooklyn Paper
Enter your comment below
By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:
You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.
