Brooklyn Developer to Turn Bensonhurst Building Into Community Facility

A developer has big plans to turn an aging three-story building in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood into a new commercial property.

Brooklyn-based investor Zigmond Brach, who is tied to the entity 63rd Street Realty II LLC, wants to convert the 83,658-square-foot property at 1600-1650 63rd Street into a seven-story, 210,000-square-foot commercial and community development, according to a recent filing with the New York City Department of City Planning.

The entity has owned the property between 16th and 17th avenues since 1991, property records show.

Brach could not be reached for comment. The New York Business Journal first reported the news.

The project, which would comprise 84,000 square feet of office space and 126,000 square feet of community facility space, would need a new class of manufacturing district zoning, one made possible through Mayor Eric Adams’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the developer wrote in the filing.

“As these buildings can meet the needs of various business types and sizes and ensure the city’s economic resilience amidst future disruptions and changing economic trends, a new class of districts are necessary,” 63rd Street Realty II wrote.

Brach also said in the filing that the proposed plans would include “increased space” for the building’s existing tenants, who are “anticipated to remain and expand their operations.”

Current tenants of the property include electronics supplier Pyle USA, audio equipment store Sound Around, pharmaceutical company Geri-Care Pharmaceuticals and the Yaldeinu School.

In other Brooklyn development news, Adams pitched plans last week to build an 840-foot-tall residential building at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension with more than 1,200 new apartment units, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.