Clipper Equity completes $20m in capital improvements and renovations

Clipper Equity LLC has completed over $20 million in capital improvements and apartment renovations at Flatbush Gardens, a rent stabilized community of 59 six-story brick buildings. Comprising 30 acres of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and bordered by Newkirk, Nostrand, Farragut and Brooklyn Aves., there are 2,469 units with over 10,000 residents living in this neighborhood clustered around courtyards and play areas. Built in the 1940s, on the site of Flatbush Waterworks, and purchased by Clipper Equity in 2005, Flatbush Gardens has begun a renaissance. The capital improvements to the property have exceeded $10 million and additional $10 million has been spent on renovating 1,200 units, prior to new tenant occupancy. Clipper Equity has installed 59 new elevators/one in each building, updated the boiler system, reroofed 40% of the buildings, repaired the masonry and pointing of the exterior brick, installed a state of the art laundry facility with new industrial washers/dryers, and replaced the mail room with a 24/7 center and parcel post office. In a first step to an upgrading of the grounds, Clipper Equity hired GreenbergFarrow, a fully integrated architecture, planning, engineering and development services firm, to design the hard and soft scape for a prototype courtyard which will be finished this spring. "Flatbush Gardens is a strong community and Clipper Equity's goal is to improve the physical surrounding and quality of life here," said JJ Bistricer, executive vice president of Clipper Equity. "We purchased a property knowing that it had many issues that needed addressing and have corrected many of them while continuing to work on the others." Flatbush Gardens has studios, one, two and three bedrooms.