Developers Bet on Flatbush — And Revived 421-A Tax Break

Development is booming in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn — thanks largely to New York’s biggest tax break for new development. Lawmakers renewed New York’s 421-a property tax exemption in April 2017 — under the new name “Affordable New York” — giving developers a tax break in exchange for mixing affordable housing into new apartment buildings.

The tax break has unleashed new development in neighborhoods like Flatbush, on the edges of the City’s building boom. From April through August, developers bought sites in seven transactions for a total of nearly $24 million, up a third (32%) from the same period a year before.

These seven deals averaged $153 per square foot, up from $115 before the passage of the tax incentive, and up from just $74 in 2014, according to the “Brooklyn 2017 Mid-Year Sales Report” from Ariel Property Advisors.

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