Brooklyn, NY – Young Charedi Real Estate Mogul Praised For Revitalizing Living Condtions In Apt. Complex

Brooklyn, NY – Most developments don’t have a director of operations who’s a former decorated New York City detective. They don’t have a suit-and-tie dressed security force of active New York law enforcement officials who circle its pathways in twos and threes like beat cops who walked the streets of New York decades ago.

Most developments aren’t Flatbush Gardens, a 59-building, 2,496-unit rental complex on Foster Ave. near Newkirk and Nostrand Aves. in East Flatbush, New York. Reborn after years as Vanderveer Estates, one of the city’s worst-run federal housing complexes where drug dealing and daily beat-downs were as common as trips to the corner deli, Flatbush Gardens has been attempting to draw a new slew of renters to its very affordable units for two-plus years now.

Twenty-five people moved in Nov. 1. Fifteen more are due on Nov. 15.

“We knew this was going to be a huge challenge,” says J.J. Bistricer, of Flatbush Gardens owner Clipper Equity, a three-generation Brooklyn-based company that developed land near the George Washington Bridge 21 years ago and put together a $1.3 billion bid for Starrett City. “Any time you have to make a neighborhood into a safe and happy environment to attract new residents, there are going to be problems. This place was a shooting gallery 10 years ago. Now it’s a solid place to live.”

The security force helps. Director of operation Rafael Garcia runs a tight ship that could become a model for turning around crime-ridden housing complexes as fringe neighborhoods become the only affordable areas left to live in the most expensive real estate city in the world. Rents in Flatbush Gardens range from $875 for a studio apartment to $1,025 for a one-bedroom to $1,200 for a two-bedroom apartment.

On a recent Sunday, a twentysomething married couple from Bed-Stuy toured its one-bedroom units.

“Of all the places we’ve seen, this is by far the most spacious,” says Jamal Dorville, 24, dressed in a jacket and tie after attending church. Adjani, his wife, saw an ad for the complex on television. “New appliances and a new bathroom are strong draws at this price.”

Rich Zak, an artist, toured models with his mother. He recently started a job at the Brooklyn Marriott.

‘It’s nice and clean,” says Zak’s mom. “I’d prefer him to live next-door, but this feels safe and easy.”

After spending over $17 million for new boilers, repairing roof damage, replacing elevators, adding porters for each building, refurbishing apartments, installing security cameras, improving entryways and landscaping, Clipper Equity listened to older and new tenants’ needs, and constantly kept an eye on price.

“We are charging under what rent-stabilized laws allow us to charge,” says Nora Gross, director of leasing at the complex. “For better or worse, gentrification has not yet happened here. There are no $4 cups of coffee, no organic health food stores. This is for pioneers, working-class people who want to stay close to where they were born and where they work. The riffraff is gone. What’s left are people who want a community.”

Last Saturday at 8 p.m., children ate Halloween candy on quiet stairwells, some filled with African art, flowers and curtains put there by residents. Small groups of teens relaxed on benches. Caribbean music streamed through a fourth-floor window. A security guard eyed a pair of adults smoking cigarettes in a hallway.

“It’s the weekend,” he tells me, mentioning that at this hour during a weekday he might ask them to move inside. “You have to give some leeway. Mr. Garcia understands how people are people. He taught us how to communicate first and act second.”

After working 20 years on the New York City police force as a decorated homicide detective in the Bronx, Garcia knows every nook and cranny of Flatbush Gardens, every person who lives or regularly visits people living on the 30-acre property. His unit combines real estate property management with quality of life control, handling all complaints.

Personally, he selected each member of his on-site security force, seeking a calm demeanor and community care. All wear jackets and ties, looking more like professional athletes than peacekeepers. Taught to communicate with residents, the security force has learned to be a part of the redevelopment process rather than cause tension.”If I see kids acting in a certain way,” says Garcia, “my first instinct is to get them jobs in the community at athletic centers, working in the trades, or somewhere they can learn a skill. You have to involve them in the process of neighborhood change.”

With six courtyards, asphalt and stone stairs leading to elevated building entrances, maneuvering the complex can be complicated.

“Ultimately, the property improves from Rafael’s ability to understand security and property management,” says Bistricer, whose company paid $140 million for the property in 2005. “He takes his job personally and understands how he as an individual impacts community.”

Two weeks before, an on-site Flatbush Gardens security officer prevented a rooftop assault of a young woman after a camera surveillance system picked up a male perpetrator dragging her into an elevator. The response time was less than 3 minutes. The assailant detained by the Flatbush Gardens security officer was arrested immediately by a police officer from the 67th Precinct.

New renter Katherine Brecka lived in Washington Heights 14 years ago and Prospet Heights for the past 12 before moving into Flatbush Gardens. “It’s hard to explain,” says Brecka, a single woman. “I have never loved a neighborhood more. I feel I’m part of something. It doesn’t matter what people look like here. Everyone is just friendly, hardworking and gracious.”

Currently, Bistricer and his team focus on maintenance. “The biggest challenge is dealing with tenant needs in a speedy and professional manner,” says Bistricer. “Old tenants are used to things being so bad for so long. We’ll try to change that.”

On a Sunday in late October, Gross becomes incensed when problems with new windows prevent a tenant from moving in.

Garcia quells a misunderstanding over garbage pickup.

Up the street on Nostrand Ave., after dark, Desmond from Guyana hawks reggae CDs for $3, while a Caribbean woman sell boiled peanuts. A 10-minute walk from Brooklyn College and a 20-minute subway ride to downtown Brooklyn, the area around the Gardens breathes with life as kids play basketball under lit courts.

“People in and out of the neighborhood know how far we’ve come since we took this over,” says Bistricer. “We’re not ashamed of the grit. We’re trying to draw solid people who respect their surroundings, who have an open mind and want to be a good citizen. We hope we can give that MTA worker, hospital employee, the best home their money can get them.”

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