Nov. 11, 2021 By Max Parrott
An Israeli jazz bassist-turned-developer Omer Avital and his business partner Yoav Adereth have asked the city for permission to build two small-scale apartment buildings in a manufacturing area of Ridgewood.
The developers presented their plans to Community Board 5 this week and received positive feedback from its members.
Avital and Adereth are planning to replace a residential building at 1718 Decatur Street with a two-story, 10-unit development. The building would include 1,200 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor.
A block further south at 1112 Wyckoff Ave., the developers plan to tear down a two-family house to put up a three-story, 6-unit residential building.
The two developers own a handful of residential buildings in Brooklyn. Several years ago, they were able to fuse their music and real estate ventures just over the Bushwick line at 637 Wilson Ave., where they opened up a small jazz venue in a mixed use residential building that also contains a CBD dispensary.
The two Ridgewood properties fall within what is technically a light manufacturing zoning that doesn’t allow for residential development, except with authorization from the Department of City Planning. According to DCP, the application is not subject to the city’s uniform land use procedure that would require a public hearing by the community board, but the two made a proactive effort to get feedback from the community board regardless.
The community board did not issue a resolution but members spoke in favor of the project.
“We really didn’t have any comments about it. We asked about parking. There’s no requirement for parking there,” said Land Use Committee Chairperson Walter Sanchez. “We didn’t really have any problems with it.”
Avital and Adereth did not immediately respond to the Post’s inquiry about what type of business they are planning for the commercial space in the Decatur property.