Sunset’s Eighth Avenue is booming

With several developments on the way, Sunset’s Park’s Eighth Avenue, also known as Brooklyn Chinatown, is experiencing a boom.

Among the proposals that have surfaced over the past several years is one in which a parking lot approximately 160,700 square feet in size, located at 6208 Eighth Avenue, would be transformed into a mega-development called the Eighth Avenue Center. The space was purchased by a group of Chinese investors in 2014 for $51.5 million. It is planned to include a retail space, a 17-story office building, a seven-to-10-story/150-room hotel, and two 15-story condominium towers. Although construction was expected to begin in spring of 2015, it currently remains a parking lot.

The site owners, Xiu Qin Shi and Aiyun Chen, purchased the space near the 62^nd Street train station, from Andrew Kohen of MSK Properties LLC, who had planned a mixed-use development at the site which  was certified by the Department of City Planning (DCP) in 2007. That development, which included an 11-story building with a Home Depot and residential units, never came to fruition after the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

Queens-based architect Raymond Chan would design the new space.

The delayed Eighth Avenue Center isn’t the only major change coming to the area.

A medical condo is also in development. The space, 5521 Eighth Avenue, is slated to be called the Winley Plaza Condominium. The approximately 81,000-square-foot space will cost nearly $33 million to construct and is planned to house 41 condo units, 36 medical offices, and four retail units. It is expected to stand six stories high.

Developer Andy Wong of Golden 8th Avenue Realty Corp., also Flushing-based, will be building the project. Chan, who designed plans for the Eighth Avenue Center, is also designing the Winley Plaza.

The building is planned to open within the next two years.