Permits Filed For Demolition At Future Pratt Housing Site
BY NORA WHELAN ON JULY 11, 2014
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Looks like change might be coming at last to the long-in-flux lot at 131-137 Emerson Place (between Myrtle and Willoughby Avenues). Permits were issued (or, we should say, reissued) for demolition of a fence and a two story building on the lot on June 18.
The address has a bit of a tumultuous recent history. In 2008, Hudson Companies began work on the site in preparation to build a 16 story development scheduled for completion in late 2009, but were halted by a crashing market–and a stop work order, as they had apparently completed at least partial demolition of the two story building on the property without a permit.
In 2012, Pratt bought the property from Cara Development, Hudson Companies’ initial partner in the deal, for $13 million–which The Real Deal said at the time would likely be turned into housing for Pratt staff or students. Via realtor Massey Knakal’s original listing for the site:
The subject has approvals for a 17-story, 110-unit residential tower. The high-rise will offer a diverse mix of unit types ranging from efficient studios to family-sized two-bedroom apartments, including terrace penthouses. The 17-story tower will have 360 degree views, abundant outdoor space, and sleek modern apartments. A recent down-zoning limits the height of future development on nearby lots & preserves the historic scale of Myrtle Avenue, so the north & south views from the building’s extra lot-line windows are expected to be preserved long-term.
None of the previous two story building was still visible from our vantage point of the site the other day, so perhaps the permit filed for that particular demolition is simply part of a remediation process for that old stop work order–unless there’s a two story building we missed to be demo’d on the roughly 35,000 sq ft irregularly shaped lot, which also has frontage on Classon and Myrtle Avenues.