"It addresses important unmet housing needs and will eliminate existent blight," says Mark A. Levine, Herrick Feinstein LLP zoning and land use chair. The law firm facilitated the projects receiving approval from the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals. Levine tells GlobeSt.com that the site had become a neighborhood blight as a partially constructed building had been abandoned years ago. The plan now calls for 130,000 sf slated for residential use in a 12-story, 92-unit contextual building and more than 11,000 sf for commercial development. The site will also be home to a church. Levine says it will be on the northern section of the property, side by side with the development, but not interconnected. Development costs for both projects were not released.

The second development project on Walton Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is designed to cater to the needs of larger families and will feature units ranging from 1,400 to 2,600 sf with as many as four or five bedrooms. The project calls for three seven-story residential buildings comprising over 90,000 sf with 24 five-bedroom, 17 four-bedroom and one three-bedroom unit.

The Walton Avenue application had been unanimously rejected by the local community board. Herrick then joined the endeavor and gained support after working on a new design, completing land use, demographic and employment analyses. "We answered concerns," Levine explains.