A developer has filed plans for an 11-story mixed-use building at 2273 Pitkin Avenue in East New York, at the corner of Schenck Avenue, calling for 90 residences on a stretch of the avenue currently occupied by a tire shop and a small church. The proposal, filed under owner Yitzi Salamon, would rise 115 feet and add 62,476 square feet of new construction to the block near the Van Siclen Avenue subway station.
The permit application, first reported by New York YIMBY, names Nikolai Katz Architect as architect of record for the concrete-based structure, which is expected to include a cellar and sit near the A and C trains at Van Siclen Avenue. No demolition permits have yet been filed for the existing commercial structure on the site, and the filing does not include an announced completion date.
Ninety Units, Mostly Studio-Sized
Of the total square footage, 59,074 square feet is designated for residential space and 3,402 square feet for ground-floor commercial use, per the filing. With 90 units planned across that residential footprint, the average apartment would measure roughly 656 square feet — a scope that suggests the building is most likely headed for the rental market rather than condos.
From Tire Shop and Church to Apartments
The Pitkin Avenue parcel has long served more modest commercial and institutional purposes, most recently housing the Peralta Tire Shop and the religious facility God's Temple of Prayer Deliverance Center, according to Net Ministries. That mix of low-rise retail and houses of worship has long defined much of East New York's commercial strips ahead of the current wave of rezoning-driven redevelopment.
Developer Expands Footprint Next Door
Salamon's firm, Builders Group USA, isn't stopping at one lot. The company purchased the adjacent site at 2279 Pitkin Avenue for $3 million from Amir and Rafi Haghani on July 14, backed by a $9.9 million loan from IceCap Group, according to PincusCo. It remains unclear whether Salamon intends to combine 2273 and 2279 Pitkin Avenue into a single project or develop them separately, and what income levels the required affordable units will ultimately target.
Salamon and Katz have partnered before. The pair filed permits on July 1 for a 74-unit, 44,142-square-foot building at 78 West 180th Street in the Bronx, an ongoing collaboration flagged by The Real Deal. Katz's firm has been especially active in the borough this year: municipal permit-tracking data reviewed by PermitPipeline shows the architect filed 25 New York City building permit applications between March and July, with 92% designated for residential use and 80% located in Brooklyn.
Part of a Decade-Old Rezoning Push
The proposal sits squarely inside the East New York Neighborhood Plan, adopted in 2016 to rezone 190 blocks and establish the city's first Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area along corridors including Pitkin, Atlantic, and Liberty avenues, per the NYC Department of City Planning. The agency marked the plan's 10-year anniversary in April, citing sustained growth in mixed-income housing and commercial activity along the neighborhood's major transit corridors. The site falls within Brooklyn Community District 5, patrolled by the NYPD's 75th Precinct and served by the MTA's B14 bus along Pitkin Avenue.
Nearby, demand for the kind of affordable units this rezoning has produced remains strong. A Housing Connect lottery opened earlier this month for 49 below-market studios at the nearby Alafia development on Fountain Avenue, part of the state-backed Vital Brooklyn initiative, with rents starting at $830 a month. A separate lottery earlier this year offered one-bedrooms from $761 at 2700 Atlantic Avenue, another post-rezoning mid-rise along a parallel commercial corridor.
Salamon's Broader Acquisition Strategy
The Pitkin Avenue purchase fits a broader pattern for Salamon, who has been acquiring outer-borough properties for higher-density conversions. In February, he purchased a multifamily property at 1234 College Avenue in the Bronx for $1.025 million with plans to redevelop it into 10 apartments, according to Traded. For now, East New York neighbors are left watching two adjoining Pitkin Avenue lots controlled by the same developer, with no word yet on how the pieces will fit together.
