Construction Update: Lightstone Group’s 363 and 365 Bond St., Gowanus

Eye on Real Estate

March 11, 2015 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

This rendering shows apartments that Lightstone Group is building at 363 and 365 Bond St. on the Gowanus Canal shoreline. Rendering courtesy of Lightstone

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Keep On Truckin’, Baby.

(Remember that Temptations song?)

Construction crews at Brooklyn development sites were toiling throughout the winter, making the most of every moment that it wasn’t snowing, sleeting or raining hard enough to make their job sites dangerous.

When they were out working on important new buildings, we weren’t sitting by the fireside poring over poetry books. Isn’t that why clothing companies sell ankle-length down coats with hoods — so real-estate obsessed Brooklynites can check up on construction projects without fear of frostbite?

Though things have shaped up in the past couple days, March came in like a lion, and was quite ugly when we did our construction site check-ups.

So, sadly, the skies are gray in our photos. But they will give you a sense of how several interesting developments are shaping up.

Here’s what we saw in Gowanus:

If you haven’t crossed the Carroll Street Bridge lately, you’re in for a surprise.

Construction is proceeding right alongside it on two rental-apartment buildings with a total of nearly 700 units, 140 of which will be affordable housing. Portions of the buildings will be 12 stories tall.

The development is situated on the shoreline of Gowanus’ much-loved but staggeringly polluted canal.

Lightstone Group’s apartment-complex-in-the-making is visible from Carroll Street’s iconic movable wooden bridge, which opened in 1889.

It spans the Gowanus Canal, which, as we all know, is so full of toxins that the federal Environmental Protection Agency has declared it a Superfund site. The agency’s canal cleanup is set to start in 2017.

At 365 Bond St., the framework of the building rises several stories. City Buildings Department records indicate it will have 429 apartments.

Lightstone expects to finish the construction of this building and start leasing the apartments in early 2016, a spokeswoman told us.

Workers are installing piles for 363 Bond St., which will have 268 apartments, according to Buildings Department filings. The pile driving started Feb. 18 and was expected to last for about 30 working days, the blog Pardon Me For Asking reported.

The construction of this building is expected to be completed in early 2017, “with leasing to begin shortly thereafter,” the spokeswoman said.