New build in Williamsburg to bring retail, recreation with historic flair

A four-story commercial building that mixes orange brick, ornamentation, and round poles with a dramatic glass and steel top-story overhang is planned to fill a vacant corner lot on Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, renderings show. The structure’s lower floors are reminiscent of a 19th century cast iron commercial building, but the upper stories appear more postmodern with their voids and glassy sections.

In a departure from nearly all post-war buildings, the structure features applied ornament. The Art Deco-ish rosettes and zig-zags worked in brick emphasize the building’s vertical and horizontal lines and tall windows.

A recent visit to the site at 83 Wythe Ave., on the corner of North 10th Street, revealed a rendering posted to the green construction fence (on top of which someone pasted a sticker of a Tom Fruin-style water tower). A new-building permit applied for in August has not yet been issued, and no work was taking place on the lot.

Jeremiah Zudiema of Archimaera Architecture PC (formerly Albo Liberis LLC) is the architect of record for the new building, that application shows. Past projects include the nearby William Vale Hotel.

A rendering of the front elevation on developer Double U Development’s website shows more clearly the ground floor’s large windows with rounded corners and decorative brickwork, as well as a landscaped terrace on a higher floor. Some of the second-floor windows appear to be screened by lattice-like open brickwork.

The permit application says the new build will be fully commercial and 84 feet high with 164 enclosed parking spaces. Uses will mix retail and recreation, signaling a sporty addition to the already active area that includes a climbing gym, ax throwing, a barre studio, and McCarren and Bushwick Inlet parks.

Michael Weitzman of Double U Development is listed as the building’s owner on the permit application. Double U’s other developments in the area include the controversial adaptive reuse project of the religious school at 70 Havemeyer St. and rental apartments at 1000 Lorimer St. that replaced Disco Ball Rite Aid in the former Meserole Theater.

In August 2024, Weitzman applied for a demolition permit for a two-story building at 83 Wythe Ave., currently occupied by a deli on the ground floor. The permit has not yet been issued.

City records show Weitzman bought 83 Wythe Ave. through an LLC for $20 million in 2022. The purchase came while former owner Cayuga Capital was attempting to sell the larger parcel that included 83 and 87 Wythe Ave. for $65 million. Cayuga Capital has previously pitched a Jenga-esque tower for the site at 83 Wythe Ave.

After failing to sell the larger site, city records show, Cayuga Capital sold 83 Wythe Avenue to Weitzman in 2022 and in late 2024 sold the commercial buildings at 87 Wythe Ave., which includes 79-97 North 10th Street, to BLDG Management through an LLC for $26.9 million.

Cayuga Capital had already demolished the single-story red brick building that took up most of the site at 83 Wythe Ave. in 2018 before it was sold to Weitzman.

This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site amNewYork.