By Gabriel Rom
The Brooklyn development boom continues its march into Queens.
A four-story apartment building will replace a single-story brick house on 17-28 Himrod St. in Ridgewood.
The new development, designed by Input Creative Studio, will have seven apartments across 4,992 square feet of residential space—an average of about 720 square feet per unit.
Input Creative Studio said they made it a point to keep the building within the prevailing aesthetic of Ridgewood.
In a nod to Ridgewood’s many pre-war brick buildings, the development will have a clad red-brick facade on the upper floors and white facade panelling on the ground floor. Each apartment on the upper floors will get its own balcony.
“It’s the designers’ responsibility to play off of what’s already there,” said Brooke Lichtenstein of Input Creative Studio.
“We wanted the building to look modern but not take away anything from the street. As long as you respect the neighborhood in its context, people seem to be more open to it.”
The project, which will have two units on each of the first three floors, a full-floor penthouse on the fourth floor and a roof terrace, signals that ultra-high-end developments are coming to Ridgewood.
Midwood-based architect Barry Goldsmith applied for the permits, but Input Creative Studio dealt with interior and exterior design. Mayer Maisels, of Borough Park-based Himrod Residential, is the project’s developer.
Goldsmith first filed building applications for the development in April, and the city DOB gave the go-ahead for the project in June.
In early February, a major development site in Ridgewood was expanded to two lots and in October, a longtime Ridgewood tenant, the ½ Price Kids shop, announced it would be vacating its 60-84 Myrtle Ave. building, which was recently sold..
The development surge has ignited controversy. At a dilapidated rent-controlled apartment building about one mile west ofthe new property, city officials have alleged that landlords are engaging in discriminatory housing practices in an effort to evict tenants who benefit from Section 8 vouchers.
The building was purchased by Silvershore Properties for $10.6 million in November.
“The gentrification situation–no, not even the gentrification of Ridgewood, but the speculation in Ridgewood is second to none,” said Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn). Reynoso, along with U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Ridgewood), led a protest last week at the property.
“It’s happening like it happened in Williamsburg and Bushwick,” he added.
“The developers are almost identical. They just keep moving to the east. Queens is the next stop.”
Lichtenstein, for her part, did not entirely disagree with Reynoso.
As developers see Ridgewood filling up, they may move to neighborhoods adjacent to it along the water, and so on,” she said.
“I really think it’s hit or miss if people in the area are going to embrace it or be upset.”
Reach reporter Gabriel Rom by e-mail at grom@
