Another Big Building Coming To 4th Avenue, This One At Baltic

The corner of Baltic Street and 4th Avenue is headed for a whole new look. JDS Development Group has purchased a $6 million, four-property site on the corner, and they are currently planning to start developing a 65,000-square-foot residential and commercial-use building, Crain’s reports.

Demolition on the current properties, which Curbed notes are at 613 Baltic, may begin by the end of the year.

JDS Development Group, which has managed the production of over four million square feet of property in New York and Miami, is best known these days for its Walker Tower, a massive skyscraper in Chelsea that just sold a penthouse apartment for over $50 million. They have also been in the news for their work in managing the construction of the ultra-skinny high rise on 111 West 57th St in Manhattan.

This move to Brooklyn is a marker of an ongoing shift out of Manhattan. JDS has already been a part of several Brooklyn-based construction projects, including a rental building at 202 8th Street. And of course, in our area, they’re not alone — several new, tall buildings are scheduled to go up along 4th Avenue in the coming years.

“We like to have a diversity in our portfolio,” Michael Stern, JDS’s managing partner and founder, told Crain’s. “It’s getting harder and harder [to develop in Manhattan]… I think there is a lot of opportunity for growth in Brooklyn.”

A large amount of this “growth” will be taking place in Park Slope, as the neighborhood currently ranks third in the borough for percentage of new developments behind Bay Ridge and Greenpoint according to the MNS Brooklyn New Development Market Report for the 1st quarter of 2014.

The neighborhood also attracts the developers, like JDS, with the deepest pocket, as it ranks second in the borough in median price per square foot, just behind Brooklyn Heights.

Image via Google Maps