Crown Heights' 73-99 Empire Boulevard Erased for Luxury Housing

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Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Services/1940s.nyc From Mack Trucks to Apartments: A Century on Empire Boulevard For most of the twentieth century, the block at 73-99 Empire Boulevard in Crown Heights handled the heavy work of the city. Trucks came in for service. Tires were swapped out. Parts were stocked and sold. The buildings on this stretch of Brooklyn were built for vehicles, and for about sixty years, that's exactly what they served. The site directly neighbors the much taller Ebbets Field Apartment complex, which is the housing that replaced the ballpark. By 2025, both were rubble. By September 2026, the foundation of a 13-story apartment building was going in. A hundred years of industrial and automotive history on a single block, cleared in a matter of months. The main building at 73-99 Empire Boulevard went up in 1925 and opened as a Mack Truck auto service facility. At 29,000 square feet, it was built for the scale of commercial vehicle work: bay doors, floor drains, th...
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Chemical X Warehouse











Chemical Lane

This property once housed a chemical manufacturer over the years that produced the ubiquitous varnish lacquer so prominent in household and commercial applications. Over the years, the site housed many chemical companies that stored a wide array of chemicals in the warehouses situated on the property. Not before long, after sitting for over 20 years a three-alarm fire broke out consuming the wood-framed roof of two of the buildings.
























Currently, the owners cannot be found regarding the contamination of the soil surrounding the facility. The city is currently looking to condemn the site and transfer the property to a developer who would be on the hook for cleaning up the site.
























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