A 24,000-square-foot canvas, minutes from the Atlantic, at the seam of Brighton Beach and Coney Island — where a single-story showroom sits beneath roughly 170,000 buildable square feet of unrealized sky.
Assembled sites of this scale rarely surface in South Brooklyn. Nº 20 needs no assemblage — 238 feet of continuous Neptune Avenue frontage, a regular working depth, and a single owner able to move decisively.
Within a short walk of Nº 20, thousands of new residences are permitted, rising, or leasing. The Neptune Avenue corridor — long a strip of garages and lots — is becoming the spine of a new beachfront district.
Rybak Development and Cammeby's have filed a rezoning for two 22-story mixed-use towers replacing surface parking at the foot of Ocean Parkway — one block from the site.
A three-tower complex by Cammeby's and Rybak with 95,000 SF of amenities — pool, rooftop, running track. Its 2025 lottery leased middle-income units at $2,449–$3,495 per month.
Now the tallest residential tower in South Brooklyn at 40 stories — 544 apartments over a retail and community-facility base, proving the market for height by the water.
The City's beachfront master plan: 1,500 new apartments, a rebuilt Riegelmann Boardwalk, a $42M Abe Stark renovation, new ferry service at Steeplechase Pier, and upgraded streets and sewers.
Oceana Condominium & Club set the luxury precedent on the Brighton boardwalk; Trump Village and Shorecrest supply the high-rise fabric that makes 145′–175′ contextual here, not exceptional.
One block south, the B/Q elevated feeds one of Brooklyn's densest independent retail strips — markets, restaurants, medical offices — the daily-needs ecosystem new residents rent beside.
A study rendering of the as-of-right envelope — a limestone-and-glass base along Neptune Avenue, set-back residential floors above, planted terraces stepping toward the ocean. Massing shown is illustrative of the R8 envelope described in the following section.
R8 is one of New York's most generous mid-rise districts, and the December 2024 City of Yes for Housing Opportunity amendments enlarged it further. Every square foot below is a published Zoning Resolution factor multiplied by the recorded lot area. Nothing here requires a variance.
All figures are subject to confirmation by zoning counsel via a Zoning Diagram (ZD1) and survey; a portion of any UAP floor area must be income-restricted, and final ZSF depends on mechanical deductions, lot coverage and yard compliance.
Three ways to draw the same lot. In every scheme the ground floor is reserved for the showroom — glass, double-height, on the avenue — so the business that built the site stays at its front door.
A calm, 12-story condominium in limestone and glass — built entirely as of right, no affordable requirement, no discretionary approvals. The dealership returns to a new double-height glass showroom on the avenue; above it, sea-facing residences with terraces at the setback.
The full City-of-Yes envelope: a 16-story rental with a nine-story street wall and a set-back tower reaching ±175 feet. The added floor area above base FAR is permanently affordable, unlocking the 485-x tax exemption — the structure every major sponsor on this corridor is running.
The height-maximizing play: a two-story community-facility podium — a medical center, clinic, or educational tenant — carried above the showroom. Community-facility FAR of 6.5 blends with residential above, filling the tallest lawful silhouette at ±175 feet while a credit tenant strengthens the capital stack.
Development land in New York trades on buildable square feet, not lot square feet. The tax roll values the site as a $2.4M showroom; the zoning values it as up to 172,800 buildable feet of beachfront-adjacent housing. Three inputs produce the range below.
From the zoning proof above: 144,480 ZSF as of right, rising to 172,800 ZSF with the affordability preference. This is the quantity a developer is actually buying.
South Brooklyn residential development sites have been trading in a band of roughly $85–$130 per buildable SF, depending on program, affordability mix and closing terms. Affordable ZSF prices below market ZSF, so blended rates apply to UAP schemes.
A 99-year ground lease at market would begin near 5.0–5.5% of land value. Capitalizing $750K–$1.15M of year-one rent back at those rates lands in the same $14M–$21M corridor — the two methods agree.
What moves the number. Retaining the showroom condo reduces headline proceeds modestly (the developer nets less sellable area) but the owner keeps a brand-new ±14,000 SF commercial asset worth several million in its own right. Opportunity Zone status widens the buyer pool and supports the top of the range. These are broker-style indications — not an appraisal — to be sharpened with a formal ZD1, survey, and current contract comps.
The dealership is not an obstacle to the project — it is a term of it. Each structure below writes the showroom into the deal documents so the business trades a 1951 building for new premises on the same corner.
The new building is declared as a condominium; the ground-floor retail unit — the double-height showroom — is deeded to ownership at closing. Owned free and clear, mortgageable, sellable, inheritable. The cleanest structure.
Ownership signs a 25–49 year triple-net lease on the new showroom at a favorable rent negotiated as part of the land price. Less capital tied up in real estate; the dealership's occupancy cost is fixed for a generation.
The lot is subdivided vertically: ownership keeps fee title to the ground-floor parcel and ground-leases only the air rights above it. The land under the showroom never changes hands at all.
The land is contributed into the development joint venture at appraised value; ownership takes a promoted equity stake in the tower and the showroom condo is carved out from day one. Highest ceiling, shared risk.
Both structures keep the dealership on the ground floor of the new building. The question is whether ownership wants an estate — income in perpetuity — or a capital event, softened by the site's Opportunity Zone status.
Own the land forever. Let a developer build on it.
Ownership leases the land to a developer for 99 years. The developer finances and builds the tower; ownership collects escalating rent secured by the improvements — no construction risk, no capital gains event, and the parcel returns to the family, tower included, at expiry.
One closing. One condo unit kept — the showroom.
Ownership sells the development parcel outright, structured so the new building's ground-floor commercial condominium — the double-height showroom — is deeded back at closing. The dealership emerges owning brand-new premises free and clear, plus the sale proceeds.
Contribute the land as equity into the development partnership instead of selling it. Ownership takes a promoted interest in the tower — sharing in condominium sell-out or stabilized rental value — while the showroom condo is carved out from day one. Highest ceiling, shared risk; best suited to Study B or C with an institutional partner.