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 commerc...
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Hidden Gems #4: The $1.9 Million Shack




Drove by this unsuspecting gem traveling home. Immediately got out and snapped away.

Come to find out this piece of property was built all the way back in 1899 (119 years old). You can't see from the street but there is a house located behind this small building. Surprisingly, with all the huge money pouring into this neighborhood, the current owners have not sold out with the rising New York City real estate prices. This property currently has an estimated land value of $1.9 million. The house on the property is still inhabited according to sources who have looked into the property. I guess the current landowners are just sitting on it for now to maximize the most land value they can get in this increasingly hot real estate market.

Quite a jarring sight in a hip Brooklyn neighborhood.


July 4, 2018

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