A cool dive bar — with some new affordable housing — is coming to the south side!
The City Council voted last week to rezone a vacant Wythe Avenue lot in Williamsburg, paving the way for a new six-story apartment complex near S. Second Street.
The lot includes the latest clubhouse of Manhattan tastemaker Taavo Somer, co-owner of the Lower East Side restaurant Freeman’s and West Village hangout The Rusty Knot, though that site is as-of-right and was not necessarily affected by the rezoning.
The Council’s nod is a reversal of the community board’s recommendation to reduce the number of units on the site. Borough President Markowitz and the City Planning Commission had signed off on the plan, which will include two buildings, one with 59 market-rate units and the other containing 18 below-market rate units.
No date has been set for the groundbreaking, said architect Joe Vance, but the affordable housing will be constructed in two to three years and the market-rate building will go up two years after that.