St. Rocco’s development sparks heated, ongoing debate

A real estate dispute over 783 Fourth Avenue remains unresolved as all sides dig in. Some local residents oppose a plan to replace St. Rocco’s church complex with three buildings, including one 9-story building in the middle of the block. Other residents and public officials have pushed back, saying that the proposed affordable apartments offered in the plan are not sufficiently affordable, large enough for families or numerous enough. The real estate developer says the affordable mix and scope of the project are the only way to make it financially viable.

Disclosure: This reporter is a resident of 27th Street and has advocated for its residents.

Currently, the land is zoned M1-1D, a light manufacturing district where residential development is limited and requires city approval. The developer is requesting a zoning change in order to build residential buildings.

This is a lengthy procedure that involves public review by Community Board 7, the Brooklyn borough president, the City Planning Commission and the City Council. If the project first has support from the local community board and the local City Council member, in this case Community Board 7 and Council Member Alexa Avilés, it is often a less bumpy road through the approval process.

The developer, Watermark Capital Group, has held private meetings with Avilés, numerous public meetings with Community Board 7 and publicly emphasized the below-market apartments in its plan. Watermark also reached out and met with members of the 27th Street Block Association, whose residents would be immediately impacted by the project.

“I soon will be living by an eleven-floor wall,” said Jonathan Steinke, a resident of 27th Street, at a CB7 meeting in June 2025 where the developer presented plans to members of CB7 and the public. “When you start changing zoning in areas, it’s catastrophic ... you’re changing the whole landscape of what’s gonna happen in this neighborhood.”

With the city in an affordable housing crisis and the push to construct more homes, politics and laws are bending toward expanding the housing stock. Exactly what is built and where, however, is not easily agreed upon.

Council Member Alexa Avilés spoke at a March 30 Community Board 7 Housing Committee meeting and listed her three priorities: deep affordability for this community, senior housing and the need for family-size apartments among affordable units.

St. Rocco’s Church was decommissioned in 2019. Watermark, the developer, has a track record of converting former church properties into residential buildings.

The proposed three buildings are known in the plans as A, B and C. Buildings A and B would be built first and managed by Watermark. They would rise 13 and 9 stories, respectively, both on 27th Street. Twenty-three percent and 25%, respectively, of the apartments would be “affordable,” charging less than market rent.

Building C, built later, would be constructed and managed by the Brooklyn nonprofit Fifth Avenue Committee. All apartments would be below market rate. The building, on 28th Street, would reach 8 stories.

The total number of units for all three buildings is 214.

“We welcome new housing on our block,” the 27th Street Block Association writes in a letter to CB7 and Avilés. It states that they are not opposed to the project, but they want changes. They ask why Building B, located in the middle of 27th Street next to two-story wood-frame buildings, would be permitted at 9 stories high, which they point out runs counter to what normally exists midblock or is permitted by zoning in similar neighborhoods.

“I definitely want to underscore the point some of my neighbors share about the height and impact on light and air,” Lee Welling said at a recent CB7 meeting. Welling, who lives adjacent to the church, also mentioned the environmental concerns of having a large and ongoing construction site right next to the modest building where she and her husband live with their two young children.

While discussing the need for affordable housing for families, Avilés stated, “I think we absolutely should argue for more three-bedrooms in Building C ... the majority is studios and one-bedrooms in Building C, and that’s exactly, I think, what we were saying was not a great mix.”

She also said many apartments that are designated as affordable housing, while lower than market rate, are still not affordable for residents of Sunset Park. Many apartments are 40% to 80% of Area Median Income (AMI). Avilés said that in Sunset Park, the AMI would have to be at 30% to be truly affordable.

“We’re at literally our breaking point. We have spent two years running these numbers back and forth,” said Eric Palatnik, the lawyer who presented the plans on behalf of Watermark, at a recent CB7 meeting. He said the buildings need to be at this scale and have this mix of affordability and market-rate rent for the finances to work. “We have worked like dogs for the last two years to give you the best, most efficient project we can.”

Others at Community Board 7 meetings questioned why a property that has been tax-exempt and owned by the Diocese of Brooklyn for so long can now be leased to a real estate developer to build a for-profit project.

The Diocese of Brooklyn has not responded to the Sunset Post’s questions about the land lease.

When asked about the status of the processes, a spokesperson for Watermark responded, “The developer is waiting on a certification date from Department of City Planning, which will set the timeline for the ULURP process.”

Council Member Avilés put out a survey on social media to gather residents’ opinions and concerns on the proposed development.