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Life in a Chocolate Factory?Residential Boom Ahead on AtlanticBY KAY HOLMES SEARES%u2018%u2018In the next few months there%u2019s going to be a big visual explosion on the eastern end of Atlantic Avenue,%u201d enthused Bill Harris, realtor and developer. Co-owner with Ted Hilles of Atlantic Gardens, the nine building restoration project between Third and Fourth Avenues, Harris plans to light the fuse.That project, together with the conversion of the nearby Ex-Lax factory into 57 cooperative lofts, threatens to create a stampede of homesteaders to a part of the avenue that has previously been ignored. With the reclamation of nine burnt-out buildings and the transformation of a vacant factory the biggest chunk of urban blight in a two block area will be wiped out. And the not unlikely result may be the rebirth of a community.%u201c 1 have a special feeling about neighborhoods like Boerum Hill and streets like Atlantic Avenue,%u201d said Jerry Kretchmer, whose firm Recycling for Housing is undertaking the Ex-Lax renovatgion. %u201cThe city is really a series of neighborhoods and we%u2019re interested in preserving them. I think areas like this can be revitalized and my company is doing what it can to help a neighborhood in transition move forward.%u201dThe two. projects, occurring almost simultaneously on the avenue, offer some interesting contrasts. While one is being developed by local investors, emphasizing restoration of 19th century buildings and renovation into brownstone-type rental units, the other is being undertaken by an outside though not unfamiliar firm, offering ownership of lofts, a 20th century answer to housing needs. Both feature residential and commercial space and seek to attract the professional, middle class.A Brooklyn Union Gas Company Cinderella promotion project, Atlantic Gardens will be the scene of the Antic%u2019s %u201c Night of the Phoenixes%u201d Party. The owners have sought to restore the exteriors as well as renovate the interiors of the nine buildings, with designer Roger Bazeley hired to color coordinate the facades, select the awnings and the lettering, which will be used over all the shops. Great care will be taken to ensure that the shops are in keeping with the intent of the project as a whole, according to both Hilles and Harris, who emphasize that there will be no fast food restaurants.Half of the 24 apartments will be floor-throughs, the other half onebedrooms, with rents ranging from $200 to $325. While some will have fireplaces, all will have new oak floors and exposed brick, and the six adjoining buildings (525-535) will have a common, landscaped garden in the rear. A nearby used car lot will be leased from the city to provide parking for tenants and business friends. The shops are scheduled for fall occupancy while the developers plan to make the apartments available in January.The $2.5 million Ex-Lax factory conversion features 57 co-op lofts and 6700 sq. ft. of commercial space. While the lofts will be renovated to include parquet flooring, a finished kitchen and bath and walk-in closets, the goundfloor commercial space will be sold %u201c as is.%u201dSPRING IN EXLAXEach apartment is different yet similar, ranging in size from a living space of 1000 to 1700 sq. ft. Kretchmer is planning to make them available for spring occupancy and they will be sold for $25,000 to $50,000. Some of the lofts have terraces, overlooking the lush gardens of brownstoners on the next street; a few special spaces are large enough to accommodate a mezzanine. An enormous cellar, far greater than required for storage, could be converted by residents into handball courts or other indoor recreational facilities. A limited number of parking spaces are available.Both developers stressed the business sense of their investment. %u201c We%u2019re not two oddballs looking for a place to throw our money,%u201d said Ted Hilles, whose firm Kings Restoration acts as general contractor for the Atlantic Gardens.%u201c We look on the project as a sound business proposition because we%u2019re considering the long range development of the area,%u201d he said. A resident of Brooklyn Heights for 14 years, Hilles acknowledged that he wouldn%u2019t have gotten into the project if it weren%u2019t for his previous experience as a developer on the street. And he thinks it significant that firms like Kretchmer%u2019s have come in from outside the area, that they are interested not because of persona! experience but because of professional assessment: seeing what%u2019s happening and projecting a trend.%u201c We had a hard time making the banks believe that the project would work,%u201d said Kretchmer.%u201c We did a lot of pushing and shoving and cajoling in the year it took to put the financing together. Citibank holds the construction mortgage and the Williamsburg Savings and Independence Savings Banks hold the permanent mortgage.Kretchmer%u2019s three-year-old firm has converted two commercial properties into residential lofts in Manhattan. Now it is moving into Brooklyn on two fronts: at the Ex-Lax factory and at the Dohler Die factory on Court Street in Carroll Gardens. Kretchmer explained that his company was in the business of converting underutilized or vacant commercial buildings into living space for people - always on a co-op basis.BELIEVE IN CO-OPS%u201c 1 believe in co-ops because it%u2019s the next best thing to owning a house in the city,%u201d said Kretchmer, who himseif lives in a co-op on Central Park West in Manhattan.%u201cI think people should own their housing because then they become involved in the community around them,%u201d he continued. Buying a co-op is a form of putting down roots.%u201cOf course we%u2019re interested in earning a profit on our investment,%u201d he added, %u201cbut we%u2019re also interested in making a contribution to life in the city. As a former assemblyman and city Environmental Protection Commissioner, I care about what happens here. I think what we%u2019re doing will help the stability of the city.BELIEVES IN THE AVENUEAn eight-year resident of Boerum Hill and owner of Renaissance Real Estate, Bill Harris said he felt confident enough in the future of the avenue to make a considerable investment. He has seen rents triple in the past 10 years and felt comfortable in putting in some of his own money, beyond the construction mortgage held by Citibank and the $440,000 permanent mortgage held by the Williamsburg Savings Bank.%u201c All investments are risks,%u201d Harris said, %u201c but we discovered there was a strong residential community on the avenue and a demand for more housing.%u201c My appreciation of the avenue has been kind of slow. I realized there was something neat about it without trying to identify what the charm was. The place I really get turned into the avenue is at Court Street, looking eastward to the Williamsburg Savings Bank. 1The Atlantic Gardens, between Third and Fourth Avenues, isundergoing renovation; Jerry Kretchmer talks with AustinLaber in the Ex-Lax building. (Michael Cuiccio Photos)appreciate the unique scale of the avenue, which is so welcome in a city of such high structures. It%u2019s a great contrast to Manhattan to walk in an architectural world of the 1800s and early 1900s. And what%u2019s happening on the avenue is what%u2019s happening in the surrounding neighborhoods.%u201dHilles gives the brownstone communities major credit for the renaissance of Atlantic Avenue. %u201c The development of the avenue has come about because of the adjoining residential areas have changed,%u201d he said. %u201c People have move in instead of out of the area and that trend has gone too far to pull back now. That%u2019s not unique to Atlantic Avenue. It%u2019s a national trend to restore Main Street.%u201dThe traditional response to buying nine burnt-out buildings would have been to tear them down and start over, Hilles said. And it would have been the easier course. But he and Harris purchased the buildingsfrom the city as an historical preservation project and they were committed to bringing back the century old charm of the properties. %u201c The major blight in this block has been those nine buildings in one fell swoop we hope to revitalize the whole area.%u201c I believe in Atlantic Avenue,%u201d Hilles said. %u201c A lot of people think there will be instant changes but I don%u2019t think so. There will always be plumbing supply stores on the street; they add diversity and vitality. Personally, I%u2019d hate to see a homogeneous, cute development of fancy shops. But I don%u2019t think that%u2019s going to happen. The area is in the process of evolution. There%u2019s going to be a continuing, gradual improvement.%u201c What we%u2019ve done at Atlantic Gardens can be done elsewhere on the street,%u201d said Hilles, adding, %u201c I hope in doing it, we will encourage others to make such a commitment.%u201d