By Holly Dutton
A development firm that’s been getting busy in Brooklyn has added another project to its pipeline on the Williamsburg/Bed-Stuy borderline.
The Rabsky Group, led by Simon Dushinsky, has filed plans with the Department of Buildings to rezone two blocks in South Williamsburg/Bed-Stuy near Flushing Avenue with plans to build a pair of massive mixed-use buildings that would house 800 apartment units.
The vacant sites at 249 and 334 Wallabout Street are currently zoned for manufacturing, and the rezoning of the sites would lead the way to construct two buildings that would have a total of 622 market-rate units, 155 affordable units, and around 32,000 s/f of retail space.
The Wallabout Street sites were first purchased by The Rabsky Group in 2012 for $12.75 million from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which began selling off its Brooklyn properties in 2008 after shuttering its plant. One of those buildings, a 575,000 s/f office property now called 630 Flushing, was purchased by Acumen Capital Partners in 2011 has since become an incubator for small businesses.
The Rabsky Group is also one of the developers, along with Read Property Group, behind the forthcoming Rheingold Brewery site project at 123 Melrose Avenue in Bushwick, a massive residential project on the former beer brewery site that will eventually house 1,000 apartment units. Construction on that project is expected to begin this summer.
Dushinsky’s tight-lipped firm hasn’t commented on the plans since they’ve been made public, and did not respond to a request for comment on the plans.
The firm has nearly completed a six-story, 24-unit apartment building just down the block at 376-382 Wallabout Street.
Other Brooklyn developments the firm is working on include a seven-story building nearby on Flushing Avenue and Kent Avenue, an eight-story building in Crown Heights, and a five-story development in Clinton Hill at the former White Castle site on Myrtle Avenue.
