From Brownstoner, word today that the parking lot at the corner of Berry and North 12th (last used by Brooklyn Brewery to park their trucks) is going to be a rental project:

Last month Manhattan-based real estate firm LCOR partnered with Lehman Brothers and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to buy 34 Berry Street, and they plan to build a 6-story, 140-unit rental on the site.

The site is very large, and zoned for R6A – the big question is will it use the inclusionary housing program to provide affordable housing?

The inclusionary housing bonus on upland sites has so far been a disappointment. Only one project (at Kent and North 8th) has opted to build with the bonus. Dunn Development’s Cook and Varick Street project hopes to have some of its affordable housing generate bonuses for upland sites further west (it is also the receiving site for some of the waterfront affordable housing). But clearly, developers have not been rushing out to build affordable housing upland.

There are a few reasons for this, all of which might be solvable at 34 Berry. First off, most development in the Northside and Greenpoint (the only areas where the inclusionary bonus applies) has been condominium, and it is difficult to structure onsite affordable in a condominium project (unless you put the affordable housing offsite, which was done at Kent and North 8th). Second, you need a project with a certain minimum density – R6B clearly doesn’t have much potential to generate affordable housing, but a large R6A site such as this might.

So perhaps the stars might finally align for a project to build affordable housing under the existing zoning guidelines (rather than throwing out the zoning entirely).