Middagh Street Studio Apartments (former)

The Middagh Street Studio Apartment Building is a rare example of subsidized housing created for artists, and was Brooklyn’s first housing of this type. Converted from an historic factory building in the 1970s, Middagh Street was developed using incentives offered by the Mitchell-Lama program. As of 2004, it is being turned into luxury apartments–an all too familiar transformation in New York City–and it has the dubious distinction of being the first Mitchell-Lama building to evict all of its subsidized tenants.

Originally built in 1870, the Middagh Street building is located at the north end of Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights (the building was also known as the Henry Street Studios). For many years it was operated by the Mason, Au & Magenheimer Confectionery Manufacturing Company, which used the factory to produce Mason Peaks, a candy bar with coconut covered in chocolate, and Mason Mints, round, chocolate-covered mint patties. The sign for the factory, reading “Peaks Mason Mints,” still graces the building’s exterior.

By the late 1960s, the building, like many others in the Brooklyn waterfront area, was vacant. Under the Cadman Plaza Urban Renewal Plan developed at this time it was slated to become a parking lot. Architect Lee Pomeroy and Congressman Fred Richmond pursued modifications to this plan that included the conversion of the factory as artists’ housing. Due to their persistence Middagh Street became the first building in Brooklyn to have subsidized housing for a combination of artists and middle-income residents, and was among just a handful citywide. In keeping with their vision, the Middagh Street Studio Apartments Corporation bought the building for $55,500 and operated it under oversight of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development as specified under the Mitchell-Lama program. The Mitchell-Lama program offered tax abatements and mortgage loans for construction in exchange for limited dividends (limits to the profits one could charge for rent). It was the largest subsidized housing program that the city has ever seen.

Because it was in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, the conversion of the Middagh Street building was subject to the approval by the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission. Lee Pomeroy, who designed the conversion, retained most of the building’s original exterior, but opened up its north wall with large custom-designed windows. When completed, the building included 42 loft studio apartments with exposed structural wooden beams and millwood floors. The conversion received a Progressive Architecture Design Award for adaptive reuse and a Residential Award from the NYC Chapter of the AIA.

The resulting apartments were beautiful, but even the subsidized rent was higher than most artists could afford, and apartments intended for them stood vacant. After a year of trying to recruit artist tenants, the Middagh Street Studio Apartments Corporation lowered rents by 10% and opened the building to non-artists. Rents in 1975, a year after the building opened, ranged form $300 to $485 a month.

As of 2002, about a third of the building’s residents were artists, many of them original tenants from 1974. Others included senior citizens, single mothers, students, and disabled residents who also needed the subsidized rents to stay in the building. These tenants paid between $600 and $1,100 for their apartments. However, the Mitchell-Lama program that made these rents possible included provisions for the building owners to buy out of the program after 20 years. After buying out of the program, the building owners are free to charge market rates.

In 1999, the Penson Corporation, which owned the building at the time, announced its intention to buy out of Mitchell-Lama. The residents fought a long battle to prevent this from happening, but the company was successful in buying out the building in June 2002. Just two months later, the building was sold again and tenants were notified that none of their leases would be renewed. As of January 2004, most of the tenants had been evicted, although a few were continuing to fight the process. So while the exterior of the building will remain the same, the unique and once-groundbreaking aspect of the Middagh Street housing has ended