Even in neighborhoods where parking is at a premium, nothing is safe from the wave that is sweeping out garages, parking lots, and gas stations throughout the city and replacing them with high-end residential development. In Park Slope, for instance, a single space in the Garage Condominium (a garage where individual spaces function like condo units — people buy them for one lump sum and then pay common charges and taxes) sold last summer for $80,000. But across the street, another parking garage at 800 Union Street is getting turned into luxury rentals. This is not making the neighbors happy, and they are fighting back by doing what Park Slopers do best: complaining to whoever will listen, in this case the Daily News. One local resident described the condemned garage as "essential for the neighborhood," while another referred to the planned conversion as "awful." Unfortunately for them, though, the same things that made the garage so convenient — tony location, proximity to the Park Slope Food Coop — simultaneously make it a very attractive site for apartments. The owner, Lewis Meltzer, plans 28 of them for the six-story building, as well as 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
· Park Slopers griping over plan to turn massive parking garage into housing and retail complex [NYDN]
· Parking Garage Conversion coverage [Curbed]
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