It shouldn’t require much digging in the ol’ memory bank to remember the story we wrote yesterday about an apartment building that’s under construction on Kensington Avenue. In case you stayed up late to watch the World Series, allow us to jog your memory. 2411 Kensington Ave. used to look like this:
Now, it looks like this:
What you see in the photo above are the stair/elevator towers for what will eventually be a four story building with 28 apartments, retail on the first floor, and 10 parking spots. Obviously, the construction is still in the very early stages, so it’s impossible to know what the finished product will look like. Well, it’s impossible if you don’t have project renderings. And wouldn’t you know it, thanks to the good people at KJO Architecture, we just so happen to have some renderings to share. Check ’em out:
The building will have a contemporary look, with brick on the first floor and what looks like metal cladding on the upper levels. The consistent material on the upper floors runs the risk of making the building a little unexciting, but the smattering of windows, large and small, adds considerable interest to the facade. Also, you can see the retail space on the first floor will have enormous windows which will be necessary to get any kind of natural light, given the looming presence of the El. The A-frame sign in the rendering advertises hot cocoa, though we would anticipate a bar/restaurant and not a coffee shop for this space.
In general, it looks like this will be a really nice building and a massive upgrade from the structure that stood here previously. We still have our doubts about whether tenants will fill the building at the necessary rental rates, but we would be all too pleased for the market to prove us wrong. A commenter on our previous story noted that a collection of properties across the street are currently listed for sale for $2.3M. Who knows, if the apartment building proves successful, we could see a buyer come forward for those properties (at a much lower price than asking), and even more development on Kensington Avenue.