Kensington's long-vacant auto-repair parcel is finally getting dug up — and the hole is doing double duty. Crews are excavating for a seven-story mixed-use building that would bring 74 rental apartments and ground-floor commercial space to a stretch that spent years as a low-rise assemblage of warehouses, garages and storefronts. The work is also tied to a state-approved cleanup of soil, groundwater and vapor contamination.
According to New York YIMBY, the project comes from Zelig Weiss's Riverside Developers, under 545 Coney Island LLC, and is designed by Daniel Condatore. The planned 70-foot building is slated to span 51,026 square feet, with 3,627 square feet of commercial space, a cellar and 37 enclosed parking spaces; the apartments average about 640 square feet. Demolition wrapped in 2024, and the current work is below-grade excavation across the 0.44-acre site.
This is the long-delayed construction phase of a plan first filed in 2022. PincusCo reported at the time that the Department of Buildings filing called for a seven-story, 74-unit building and identified Riverside Developers as the owner-side applicant; the filing also referenced 421-a foundation approval. The latest update does not provide a completion date, so for now the neighborhood gets the least glamorous part of the transformation: trucks, dirt and a very large hole.
Why The Dirt Matters
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation selected a remedy in February for the Former New City Link Auto Repair site, which includes 545-547 Coney Island Avenue and 50 Hinckley Place. State records trace the property’s past through a gas station, auto-repair and auto-painting operations, a dry cleaner and a 7-Eleven — a history that helps explain why the foundation work comes with an environmental playbook attached. The approved plan calls for contaminated soil to be excavated and hauled away to roughly 15 feet below grade, with additional treatment for petroleum-related contamination in soil and groundwater. It also requires soil-vapor extraction, an active sub-slab depressurization system for future buildings and long-term groundwater monitoring, according to the agency’s April cleanup fact sheet.
The published timetable called for cleanup to begin in April and last about five months, putting the current excavation within that window. The project is also anticipated to designate 25% of its residential units as affordable housing. Before the redevelopment is fully cleared to advance, cleanup documentation and state signoff will be required.
Once the cleanup and foundation work are complete, the project is positioned to add housing along a corridor with several subway options nearby. The F and G trains at Church Avenue and the Q train at Beverley Road are within walking distance, New York YIMBY reports. For Kensington, the next big question is not whether the site is changing, but how quickly the dirt turns into homes, storefronts and a block that no longer looks like a leftover from a different Brooklyn.
