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Brooklyn's long-abandoned NYPD stationhouse will become affordable housing
By
David Brand
Published Mar 26, 2025
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David Brand
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The site of an abandoned police station on a busy block in Brownsville, Brooklyn, will soon become an affordable apartment complex, with an assist from the New York City Housing Authority.
NYCHA is set to transfer development rights and a 6,500-square-foot L-shaped sliver of land at the edge of its Howard Houses campus to the owners of the adjacent lot, where the abandoned precinct house now stands.
The deal will allow for the demolition of the boarded-up building — last used in the mid-1980s — and the construction of an 11-story complex in its place.
In exchange, the two owners — Xenolith Partners and the nonprofit property owner Family Services of New York — have agreed to reserve at least eight apartments in the planned 95-unit building for tenants of the Howard Houses interested in moving, officials said at a NYCHA board meeting Wednesday.
NYCHA Vice President Marissa Schaffer described the transaction as a first-of-its-kind deal to set aside apartments for tenants who currently live in public housing in exchange for development rights.
The board unanimously voted to approve the plan.
In a statement, NYCHA Executive Vice President Jonathan Gouveia called the deal “an incredible opportunity” to turn a derelict building into affordable apartments.
The project will feature 95 apartments with rents capped for low-income families and individuals, including single adults earning between roughly $33,000 and $65,000 and families of three earning no more than $84,000 a year. At least 57 apartments will be set aside for families and individuals leaving homeless shelters.
A rendering of the planned apartment complex at a disused NYPD stationhouse in Brooklyn.
Rendering by Gran Kriegel Architects + Planners, courtesy of Xenolith Partners LLC
The building will also have a community health center and on-site social services staff.
The property at 1546 East New York Ave. was long home to the NYPD's 65th and 73rd Precincts, before the department moved into a new building down the street. The Family Services Network of New York, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit, purchased the lot in 2002, property records show, before partnering with Xenolith in 2017 in an attempt to build an affordable housing complex there.
The project stalled in 2020 for financial reasons, Xenolith Principal Terri Belkas-Mitchell said.
Last year, however, the state issued $15.4 million in loans and other subsidies to spur development on the site. Belkas-Mitchell said the NYCHA deal lets the developers build larger than current land use rules would otherwise allow and that the project will cost about $60 million.
She also said removing the boarded-up, scaffold-obscured stationhouse will eliminate “a real blight to the neighborhood.”
“No one has touched it in a long time,” Belkas-Mitchell said. “It’s an unsettling building and it will make a real impact on the corner.”
Tagged
public safety
housing
brooklyn
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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