Local residents, elected officials and stakeholders integral to the success of the project gathered at The Hawthorne, a 12-unit mixed income condominium, to celebrate its grand opening at 418-420 Classon Avenue between Gates Avenue & Quincy Street in Clinton Hill.
Denise Scott, managing director of the Local Initiative Support Corporation of NY, stated “The Hawthorne Condominiums exemplify what is possible when creative and committed nonprofit developers like PACC work together with local government, HUD, intermediaries and other private and public partners to turn around blighted properties and preserve them as affordable housing resources for the community. The revitalization and preservation of such housing is vital if we want to maintain the economic and racial/ethnic diversity of neighborhoods like Clinton Hill, and of NYC as a whole.”
Borough President Marty Markowitz hailed the project as “another example of a nonprofit preserving affordable housing in our communities. Brooklyn should not be a home for just the very rich or very poor but must be affordable for working people.”
The historic renovation of The Hawthorne is part of the Pratt Area Community Council’s larger effort to create affordable homeownership opportunities in the Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods. In marketing the condominiums (through a lottery), PACC is targeting long-time neighborhood residents who are being priced out of the area due to the rising real estate market.
Community Board 2 residents will be given preference for 25% of the units. The project entailed the re-uniting of three brownstone properties, which were originally designed together. PACC was awarded two of the three properties through the 203K-Neighborhood Homes program, a joint federal-city program that results in the turn-around of blighted homes that are then sold at affordable prices.
The combined structure consists of approximately 11,000 square-feet of floor area and 12 condominium units. The renovation entailed the painstaking preservation and replication of the façade, including the dormers, the cornice, and the pediment, and wood doors and brownstone/limestone restoration.
There are two ranges of prices: two thirds of the units will be priced to families at 125% of area medium income (AMI), and a third at 165% of AMI. The sales prices range from approximately $185,000 for the four one-bedroom units, approximately $260,000 for four two-bedroom units, and approximately $374,000 and $423,000 for four other two-bedroom units.
The combined structure has approximately 11,000 square-feet of floor area. PACC wanted to ensure that the apartments would be suitable to families, so eight units are two-bedrooms, and the remaining four are 1one-bedrooms.
