What ever happened to Caledonian Hospital?
Eye On Real Estate
Developers Joseph Chetrit and David Bistricer, who are turning the Bossert in Brooklyn Heights back into a luxury hotel, have just made an empty Flatbush hospital building into an apartment house.
An old Caledonian Hospital building at 123 Parkside Ave. is now a luxury rental called 123 on the Park. It has unobstructed views of Prospect Park, a very fine amenity indeed.
(By the way, residents with apartments that face away from the park can gaze upon it from a landscaped, furnished roof deck. Other amenities include a fitness center with a yoga studio and a playroom for kids.)
Caly, as some Flatbush residents called the hospital, closed in 2003. It had been a neighborhood fixture since its 1910 opening. For a while after its closing, it was replaced with a diagnostic and treatment center.
Fast forward to 2014. The 119 apartments at 123 on the Park are more than 60% rented after just four months on the market, a spokeswoman told Eye on Real Estate. Brokerage aptsandlofts.com exclusively represents the development.
Monthly rents start at $2,250 for a studio, $2,300 for a one-bedroom unit and $3,300 for a two-bedroom home.
Right next door, there’s a fenced-in vacant lot where a former hospital structure referred to as Building D in city Buildings Department filings has been demolished. That’s where the Chetrit Group and Bistricer’s Clipper Equity plan to construct an eight-story, 133-unit apartment building, agency records indicate.
This second phase of 123 on the Park will also be a rental building that should be ready in approximately 18 months, the spokeswoman said. There were published reports that the project would be a combination of rental apartments and condos, but it’s an all-rental development.
In 2007, the developers paid $15.6 million for the Caledonian site through an LLC, city Finance Department records indicate. It was a U.S. Bankruptcy Court-approved sale. Caledonian’s then-owner, Brooklyn Hospital Center, was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the time.