from The Brooklyn Record Friday, April 24, 1998.
by Frederick A. Halla
Restoring The Alhambra
Thomas Anderson, Park Slope Architect, Developer and Preservationist, is rapidly completing the renovation of the 1889 landmark building, "The Alhambra," located at 500 Nostrand Avenue here in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, breathing new life into both one of the borough's most significant buildings and vital neighborhoods.
The Alhambra, a magnificent Queen Anne revival apartment building, languished in a vacant and derelict condition for many years before Anderson was able to arrange financing and begin construction of his major restoration plan. Anderson has worked tirelessly restoring and preserving what was once an upper-middle class luxury residence of the 1890's, before it became an impoverished lower income tenement. Architectural historian Christopher Gray compared the Alhambra to the Dakota, citing the block-long mountain range of peaks and crags in brick and terra cotta.
The renovation of the 46,000 square-foot building will provide forty-six affordable rental apartments of one, two and three bedrooms, with approximately 7,000 saquare feet of commercial retail space. There will be 26 one bedroom units, four two-bedroom units and 16 three bedroom units ranging from $480. to $680. per month for rents. There are already more than 3,000 applications of possible tenants who are ready, willing and able to rent the apartments. Final selections will be the result of a lottery system.
The apartments will retain the historical details of this 19th Century city landmark, including such fine details as baseboards, wainscoting, chair rails, window stools, crown moldings and rosettes. The landmark building's exterior is truly unique and is of major significance to the community of Bedford-Stuyvesant. The front facade of the building faces the west side of Nostrand Avenue, encompaassing the entire block between Macon and Halsey streets.
When built in 1889 by Architect Montose Morrison, The Alhambra was near open farm land in a section of Brooklyn that started to develop as trolley tracks were laid. Jennifer Raab, Chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, at a recent public hearing, said, "The Alhambra is really exciting to us and I think it's extraordinary that such great restoration work is being done and also creating housing for people and also commercial opportunities."
The Alhambra, once considered the buried treasure of Bedford-Stuyvesant, is the sister building to The Renaissance, which Anderson Associates renovated and restored in 1995. The Renaissance won the 1996 City of New York Preservation Achievement Award and the 1996 New York State Historic Preservation Award. The buildings, both crucial to the preservation of Brooklyn's architectural heritage, stand as monuments to Tom Anderson's career of breathing life into beautiful, historic buildings that might otherwise crumble in disuse.
Anderson began his career as a developer and preservationist when he bought his first brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn in 1982. In addition to the Alhambra and the Renaissance, Anderson's real estate projects include rehabilitation and restoration of retaurants and hotels, apartments for low, middle and high incomes as well as lofts and condominiums in Brooklyn and other parts of New York.
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