Builders have broken ground and are busy erecting a nine-story apartment building on Ocean Avenue that’s part of a wave of new development making its way south to Sheepshead Bay.
The Sunset Park-based developer New Empire Real Estate usually sticks to projects in Downtown and on the other side of the East River, so this 56-unit building between Kings Highway and Quentin Road is a first on this turf — but it may not be the last, as the neighborhood is turning into a hot spot for development, said manager Howard Chen.
“This is a growing area that we think is the next kind of booming area,” said Chen. “We are looking at different sites over there.”
New Empire Real Estate president Bentley Zhao hopes to get state approval for condominiums, and open shortly after the building is complete by next summer, said Chen. The development company filed plans with the Department of Buildings to create a daycare center in the basement for children ages 2–6 with 30 teachers, city records show, but Chen said the company is considering renting out the space for a medical facility.
The building also plans to feature a gym, lounge, yoga room, and a kid’s playroom on the second floor, along with 28 off-street parking spaces for cars, said Chen. And bicyclists will also have 28 spots to lock up their two-wheelers on the second floor, according to city records.
The nine-story building is just another one of a string of similar developments coming to the neighborhood, said Community Board 15 chairwoman Theresa Scavo.
“If you ride along Ocean Avenue, it’s just following the trend on Ocean Avenue,” she said. “Every plot of land is becoming eight- or nine-story buildings.”
And the proof is in the plans — developers have filed plans for 11 buildings six stories or higher along Ocean Avenue between Kings Highway and Voorhies Avenue since early March 2016, according to city records.
And Zhao’s apartment buildings is just a few blocks away from a pair of massive, office-and-retail centers off of Kings Highway, and another mall coming right outside the Kings Highway B and Q subway station.
