250-unit rental building opens in Brooklyn

The Lois, an eight-story, 250-unit residential building, has opened on the border of Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and East Flatbush in Brooklyn. The building features a mix of middle-income and market rate residences from studios to three bedrooms as well as 6,000 sf of ground floor retail.

The $105 million, 227,000-sf project includes amenities such as an expansive roof terrace with barbecues, a top-floor tenant lounge, a gym with a separate yoga room, a children’s room with a private outdoor play area and splash pad, a screening room, a self-service pet spa, a quiet lounge, and a game room. Residents also have access to 125 parking spaces and a 41-unit tenant storage room in the cellar.

The Lois rooftop space

The building’s facade features recessed masonry expressions and copper panel accents meant to reference the growing neighborhood’s industrial past. Apartment units include washers and dryers, stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, and central heating and cooling though an energy efficient VRF system.

The LEED Platinum certified building has set aside 75 units (30% of the building’s total) for households earning between 110% and 130% of Area Median Income. The Lois is the second building in a phased project bringing a total of more than 400 apartments to Brooklyn’s East Flatbush – Prospect-Lefferts Gardens neighborhood. The first building, The Clark at 310 Clarkson Avenue, opened in 2019.

The Lois apartment living room

The Lois apartment kitchen space

The Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team announced that it has reached an agreement with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County on a $6.5 billion, 86-acre mixed-use development that will include a new 30,000-seat ballpark and an array of office, housing, hotel, retail, and restaurant space totaling 8 million sf.

Engineers | Sep 15, 2023

NIST investigation of Champlain Towers South collapse indicates no sinkhole

Investigators from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) say they have found no evidence of underground voids on the site of the Champlain Towers South collapse, according to a new NIST report. The team of investigators have studied the site’s subsurface conditions to determine if sinkholes or excessive settling of the pile foundations might have caused the collapse.

MFPRO+ Research | Sep 11, 2023

Conversions of multifamily dwellings to ‘mansions’ leading to dwindling affordable stock

Small multifamily homes have historically provided inexpensive housing for renters and buyers, but developers have converted many of them in recent decades into larger, single-family units. This has worsened the affordable housing crisis, say researchers.

Deciphering the Differences in Smart Lock Networks

Adaptive Reuse | Aug 31, 2023

New York City creates team to accelerate office-to-residential conversions

New York City has a new Office Conversion Accelerator Team that provides a single point of contact within city government to help speed adaptive reuse projects. Projects that create 50 or more housing units from office buildings are eligible for this new program.