By: David Chen

This month’s big story is the 99-unit building. Sixteen months after the Atlantic Avenue rezoning, permits are pouring in along the corridor, and 485-x’s wage trigger is setting their size. Meanwhile, the rent freeze is now in effect and the city has named its 12 fast-track districts. Here’s what happened and what it means for owners.

485-x: 99 Units Is Still the Magic Number

Two years in, 485-x works for small and mid-size rentals and stalls everything bigger. At least 154 permits for exactly 99-unit buildings were filed between April 2024 and April 2026, and only about 1% of 485-x projects top 100 units. The reason is that at 100 units, a construction wage floor kicks in, now $42.03 an hour. Below that, the Modest Rental track (6–99 units, 20% affordable at an 80% AMI average) carries a 35-year benefit with no wage requirement.

  • 99 units: Modest Rental, no wage floor
  • 100+ units: wage floor of $42.03 an hour

Two things make 485-x a better fit here than in Manhattan. First, the higher wage zones mostly skip this area. HPD’s May 2026 485-x workbook lists the tax blocks in Zones A and B, where 150+ unit buildings face $66–76 an hour. Those zones cover roughly Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Fort Greene. Most Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, East New York and East Flatbush blocks aren’t listed. Second, the affordable rent cap is close to market. By my math from the workbook’s 2026 AMI table, an 80% AMI one-bedroom maxes out around $2,540 before utilities. At 820 Glenmore Avenue in East New York, units start at $2,500.

David’s Take: Here, the affordable set-aside costs owners less than it would in Williamsburg. The real question is whether your lot supports a full 99-unit building, or whether a buyer would split it in two. I can model which track your site supports.

City of Yes: The Bonus That Stacks

Lots zoned R6 or higher can use City of Yes’s Universal Affordability Preference, which adds floor area if the extra space is permanently affordable at a 60% AMI average. On an R6 narrow-street lot, that takes FAR from 2.2 to 3.9, about 75% more building. Those affordable units can also count toward the 485-x set-aside, so one set of units earns both the density and the tax break.

  • 2.2 FAR: R6 narrow street, base
  • 3.9 FAR: with UAP, about 75% more building
David’s Take: If your lot is R6 or higher, a buyer will value it closer to the UAP number than the base number.

Rezoning Watch

Atlantic Avenue, Vanderbilt to Nostrand: The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan passed in May 2025. It rezoned about 21 blocks from Vanderbilt to Nostrand for buildings up to 185 feet, with an estimated 4,600 homes. Sixteen months later, the permits are arriving.

A 972-Unit Rezoning, East Flatbush: Bawabeh Holdings filed in April to rezone an industrial site near Kings Highway and Rockaway Place for nine 14- to 15-story buildings, with 194 to 292 affordable units.

The Fast-Track List Is Out (citywide, effective Jan 1): On October 1, the city named the 12 community districts with the lowest affordable housing production. Starting January 1, eligible affordable rezonings there get a 90-day review, and the City Planning Commission, not the City Council, makes the final call. Three are in Brooklyn: Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights (CD 10), Borough Park and Kensington (CD 12), and Canarsie and Flatlands (CD 18). As expected, the Central and East Brooklyn districts, long among the top producers, didn’t make the list. Two permits in this issue, 913 East 108th Street in Canarsie and 4117 New Utrecht Avenue in Borough Park, sit inside fast-track districts.

David’s Take: The Atlantic corridor is no longer speculative, and land prices show it. The next opportunity is mid-block sites that got smaller bumps, plus M-zoned pockets in East Flatbush and East New York, where a private rezoning like East 98th Street sets a precedent.

New Permits Filed

Summer filings split two ways: 99-unit buildings on the Atlantic corridor, and small rentals in East New York and Brownsville.

David’s Take: Count the 99s. Big sites like 1027 Dean are being filed as several sub-100 buildings. That’s 485-x shaping the skyline, and it’s how buyers now value large lots.

Development Sites to Watch

1119 Pacific Street, Crown Heights: The MTA put this lot out to bid in March for about 300 units, at least 75 of them affordable. I haven’t seen a developer pick announced yet.

East 98th Street, East Flatbush: The 972-unit rezoning above would replace a one-story commercial building near the Saratoga Avenue 3 station. Watch for the community board hearing.

6202 8th Avenue, Sunset Park: A 549-unit, 1.05 million-square-foot filing on the Brooklyn Chinatown corridor, the borough’s largest by floor area in the first quarter.

35 Inspiration Lane, East New York: At 460 units, this was Brooklyn’s largest new building filing in the second quarter.

Nearby Projects: Kensington–Ditmas Park

214 Ditmas Avenue site

214 Ditmas Avenue, Kensington (Commercial): A commercial project with 21,400–31,000 buildable square feet and three units, developed by Joseph Frank.

428 East 9th Street rendering

428 East 9th Street, Kensington–Ditmas Park (Mixed-Use): A few blocks away, a 76-unit mixed-use building with 52,988 buildable square feet, developed by Yevgeniy Lvovskiy.

David’s Take: The MTA pick at 1119 Pacific will set a public land-value benchmark for the whole Atlantic corridor.

Land Sales: What Rezoned Dirt Is Trading For

Rezoned Atlantic land is trading around $250 per buildable foot, well above the area average of about $172. The benchmark: Avery Hall, Brodsky and Monadnock paid $49 million for 962 Pacific Street and 863 Dean Street in April. The Dean Street listing drew more than 15 offers, and 962 Pacific’s $33 million price came from the deed.

Source: public reports. Price per BSF based on reported buildable area. Transactions not brokered by Landair.

David’s Take: Both Avery Hall lots are mid-block R6A/R7D, not the taller Atlantic frontage, and they still traded about 45% over the area average. Inside the AAMUP boundary, $172 is a floor. Distressed sites like 1550 Bedford still trade far lower, so condition and timing matter too.

What Else Is Going On

The Rent Freeze Is Now in Effect: The Rent Guidelines Board voted 7–1 in June to freeze one- and two-year stabilized leases, effective October 1.

Record NYCHA Money: The FY2027 capital plan puts $5.6 billion into NYCHA over five years. The city just unveiled a model apartment showing the heat pumps and induction stoves going into renovations.

The IBX Moves Forward: In September, Governor Hochul announced that the Interborough Express is well into design, with its draft environmental review moved up to this quarter. The IBX is a $5.5 billion, 18-station light rail line from Sunset Park to Jackson Heights. She’s pitching it as a housing play: transit officials say it could support about 60,000 new homes. Mayor Mamdani’s City Planning department is already factoring it into the South of Prospect rezoning of McDonald and Coney Island avenues in Kensington. Planned Central and East Brooklyn stops include Flatbush–Nostrand, Utica, Remsen, Linden Boulevard, Livonia and Atlantic avenues. Opening is expected in the early 2030s.

David’s Take: Frozen rents against rising costs hit older walk-ups hardest, and I expect more of those owners to test the market this year. For some, the land may now be worth more than the building. I can show you both numbers.

Wondering which 485-x track your site supports?

Submit your site and I’ll run the numbers.

David Chen

David Chen

Investment Sales Associate, Landair Advisors

David Chen is an Investment Sales Associate at Landair, specializing in development and investment sales across Central and East Brooklyn. He spent three years in Credit and Counterparty Credit Risk at Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, where he developed the rigorous, numbers-first approach he now brings to underwriting and evaluating deal risk.

David is also an owner-operator of a fourplex and a duplex in New Jersey. That firsthand experience with the economics of ownership shapes how he advises clients, helping owners, developers, and investors identify value and execute with confidence.

David earned a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Bates College, where he was a recruited varsity rower. A Princeton, New Jersey native, he grew up playing competitive team sports and today stays active through road cycling and volleyball. He’s also an avid car enthusiast.

Cell: (973) 309-0083 | Office: (646) 559-4700 | dc@landairnyc.com

Landair Advisors | 221 W 37th Street, New York, NY 10018 | (646) 559-4700

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