YS Developers Signals Future of Rezoned Clinton Hill Site
Yitzchok Schwartz revealed plans for a rezoned Clinton Hill site months after snagging it from Scott Rechler at a discount.
YS Developers filed plans for three ground-up buildings in the Brooklyn neighborhood, Bisnow reported, while planning for the demolition of six properties. The plans include an office and religious component, differing from what RXR had planned for the site.
The latest filings were first reported by PincusCo.
Schwartz plans to put a 13-story, 159,000-square-foot office building at 33 Hall Street, the largest of the trio. The building would include a synagogue with both men’s and women’s shuls.
At 1 Hall Street, Schwartz is planning a 208,000-square-foot mixed-use building with 84 residential units. The property would feature commercial space and an underground parking garage with 48 spaces. Another 84-unit building would go up next door at 4 Ryerson Street.
YS Developers is also planning conversions or partial conversions of a couple of nearby buildings, including 14 Ryerson Street and 313 Park Avenue. It’s unclear how many units will shake out of Schwartz’s plans, though the latest estimates pin the number at 425, well below previous proposals that had it at 974.
Schwartz could not be reached for comment by the publication.
RXR sold the full-block development to YS Developers in April for $121.4 million. It’s unclear how much RXR lost on its investment in the 10-block assemblage — tucked between the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Flushing Avenue — but the firm bought the site in 2016 for $161 million, originally intending to convert it into luxury office space before the pandemic halted renovations.
RXR scored site approval for a rezoning shortly after winning key political support last summer. Schwartz’s firm originally intended to move forward with Rechler’s plans, a campus that would span 933,000 square feet with 620 apartments — including between 150 and 180 affordable units — 48,000 square feet of retail space, 161,000 square feet of self-storage space and 36,000 square feet for parking.
The property has been vacant since 2023, when it was leased to New York City Health + Hospitals to be used as a migrant shelter. Portions of the space briefly housed more than 3,000 asylum seekers; the lease for the health and hospital system expired last March.
Around the same time RXR was getting approval in Clinton Hill, YS Developers was moving forward with a controversial project at 960 Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights, planning 300 condo units with a projected sellout of $273 million.
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