Developer Hits A Brach-ing Point?

Willie Neuman points out an interesting conundrum in today's Big Deal (third item). If a developer with a known history of building oversize and then biting the cost in sheer profits comes into your neighborhood and makes a play to build an oversize building there, what do you do? What if the property in question is an enormous pit? That's exactly what has happened in Borough Park where Mendel Brach, a specialist at the 'we'll build extra and just say teachers will live here' style of building development, is asking the city for a variance to build a 12-story building and 259-car parking garage at 886 Dahil Road in Borough Park, specifically over the area on the other side of the supermarket parking lot in the aerial shot above.

Neighbors said the abandoned building had been a scourge for years, attracting the homeless and people who illegally dump trash. A violation issued by the Buildings Department last Tuesday was taped to the gate, citing hazardous conditions and ordering the owners to clean up the building, shore up a weak wall and secure the entrances. It was the second such violation since the developers bought the building.

Brach bought the property of for $8 million in 2003. Will he get the variance? “We look at each project thoroughly,” Rachaele Raynoff, a spokeswoman for the City Planning Department told the Times, “It’s not ‘Do you like this project or do you like the applicant?’ It’s ‘Does the project meet the requirements?’ ” And even if it does pass, the development still needs to go through public review. We suspect we'll hear some more about this one.

Aerial view of 886 Dahill Rd, Brooklyn NY from Google Maps.