A short stretch of Bushwick between Wyckoff and Irving avenues, a quick walk from the DeKalb Avenue L train stop, is quietly getting a serious housing makeover. One big affordable complex on DeKalb is now finished, while two smaller four-story buildings on nearby side streets are filling in the gaps. For neighbors, it means more rental options and yet another sign that this corner of the neighborhood is changing building by building.
1601 DeKalb delivers 127 affordable units
The largest of the three projects is 1601 DeKalb Avenue, a newly completed, nine-story, two-building rental complex with 127 affordable apartments, including 45 supportive "stable housing" units, according to RiseBoro. Designed by Aufgang Architects for Camber Property Group and RiseBoro, the development meets Enterprise Green Communities criteria and uses all-electric heating and cooling, per the architect’s project page at Aufgang.
The build was backed by roughly $75 million in financing, a funding package reported by The Real Deal, and includes on-site services such as community rooms, bike storage and 24/7 security. It is the kind of large-scale affordable project city planners point to when they talk about packing more income-restricted housing into rezoned corridors.
Small-scale infill rising on Stockholm
Just a few blocks away, 316 Stockholm Street is bringing a more modest kind of change. Permits call for a four-story residential building with eight rental units and a cellar, according to records reviewed by Pincusco. The filing lists Frank Gagliardo as the applicant and describes a roughly 5,463-square-foot structure with a narrow rear yard.
The project fits neatly into the pattern that has defined many Bushwick side streets in recent years: low-rise infill, small rental buildings and a slow but steady tightening of the neighborhood’s housing grid around the DeKalb corridor.
917 Hart nears wrap-up
On Hart Street, work at 917 is in the home stretch. The four-story structure has topped out, is clad in black metal paneling and will bring seven rental units averaging roughly 716 square feet, New York YIMBY reports. The same report notes that the Stockholm Street project is expected to top out this summer and that, taken together with the DeKalb development, the three buildings add nearly 150 new apartments to the Wyckoff-DeKalb corridor.
Those units are landing as residents and local boards continue to spar over how rezoning and new construction should shape northern Bushwick, a debate that has been simmering for years and is not likely to cool off just because the scaffolding comes down.
What this stretch will mean for neighbors
The DeKalb block was rezoned to allow larger residential projects, and city planning documents spell out how that change opened the site to higher-density housing, according to NYC Planning's environmental assessment. That review lays out the rezoning and analysis that paved the way for projects like 1601 DeKalb.
For now, what neighbors will actually see is straightforward: a sizable affordable complex sitting next to smaller market-rate walk-ups. It is a mix that will keep reshaping this short Bushwick corridor as work wraps over the coming months and into next year.
