Metro

Rheingold homes in 2nd round

A long-delayed plan to convert the former Rheingold Brewery into nearly 1,000 units of housing in a forlorn section of Brooklyn is brewing again, The Post has learned.

Read Property applied to the Department of City Planning last week for a zoning change to allow the developer to build 10 residential and mixed-used buildings with 977 apartments and 54,000 square-feet of retail space on what is largely vacant property.

“This is the very beginning of what will be a lengthy public-review process,” said Mitchell Korbey, attorney for Read Property. “This is part of the ongoing revitalization and ongoing growth of Bushwick.”

Read announced its plans for the site — located along Flushing and Evergreen avenues and currently zoned for manufacturing — four years ago but has been moving slowly ever since.

The buildings will range up to eight stories and have private courtyard gardens. It is undecided whether the units will be condos or rentals. Twenty percent will be set aside as “affordable housing.”

With easy walking to distance to the J, Z and L subway lines real estate pros predict the project will further attract young professionals and artists priced out of Williamsburg who have already been transforming the neighborhood.

“Bushwick has the opportunity to be the next Williamsburg,” said Sarah Burke, an executive vice president for Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Williamsburg office, who is not affiliated with the project.

She said Bushwick, right now, is undergoing the same real estate boom that Williamsburg experienced six years ago.

“The rezoning of the Rheingold buildings has the potential to meet several of Bushwick’s most significant needs,” said Councilwoman Diana Reyna (D-Brooklyn) who represents the neighborhood. “With affordable and low-income housing being the most obvious resource gained from the development of this area.”

She said she will push for more affordable housing.

Reyna, whose support is crucial for the project to receive approval, added that the rezoning will create “a great opportunity” to create a real “live, work and play neighborhood” provided the developer delivers quality retail stores, shops and other amenities.

But, North Brooklyn activist Phil DePaolo said the neighborhood “just can’t handle the density the project calls for considering all the high-rise apartments,” housing projects already nearby.

“It’s poor planning,” he said.

If Read Property’s project goes ahead, it would be the second phase of the redevelopment on the Rheingold site, which started in 2003 when nearly 300 apartments and town houses were built with government support.

The first hearing is scheduled for Sept. 20.