Rockrose Pays Madison Realty $65M for Cobble Hill Development Site

Rockrose is dreaming up plans for another residential project in Brooklyn, this time on the site of a failed condominium development replacing the former Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill.

The New York-based developer bought the empty lot at 91 Pacific Street from Madison Realty Capital for $65 million, according to Rockrose President Justin Elghanayan. 

Elghanayan, who used to live in the leafy west Brooklyn neighborhood himself, said plans for the 33,108-square-foot site are “still under consideration,” but hinted it would be a residential development similar to its nearby 180 Remsen Street project. (The sale was first reported by The Real Deal.)

And that would make Elghanayan the second developer to try its hand at a residential project on the lot.

Fortis Property Group planned for the site to house the tallest building in its 1 million-square-foot River Park megaproject set to take over 4.6 acres at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Hicks Street.

The developer demolished the previous 12-story ​​building, formerly used by the teaching hospital, to build a 28-story condo building, dubbed 2 River Park, in its wake.

Despite Fortis making it through a drawn-out rezoning process at 91 Pacific, the development stalled in 2019, and things never picked back up again. Fortis withdrew its plans for the site in June 2021 and lost its construction permits at the same time, according to Department of Buildings records.

Fortis handed 91 Pacific and the neighboring property at 350 Hicks Street over to its lender, Madison Realty, for $145.1 million in 2022 to avoid a Uniform Commercial Code auction, according to property records and Northgate Real Estate Group’s Greg Corbin, who was tapped to run the planned auction. 

A spokesperson for Madison Realty declined to comment. It’s unclear if brokers were involved in the deal with Rockrose.

Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.