City Breaks Ground On Caton Flats

c02

U. S. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Brownsville, Sheepshead Bay), Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Council Member Mathieu Eugene (D-Flatbush, East Flatbush, Prospect Lefferts Gardens) today helped the city broke ground on Caton Flats, a mixed-use development that will replace the Caribbean Flatbush Caton Market, a 20-year-old indoor marketplace at the corner of Caton and Flatbush avenues.

The plan calls for a 14-story building with an expanded and renovated market on the bottom floor featuring upgraded amenities for the market’s existing small business owners, expanded space for food vendors including a bar, café, and shared commercial kitchen, as well as flex space for the community.

The upper floors will have 255 affordable apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments and will be 100 percent affordable to a range of incomes from very low-income to middle-income households.

Located at the northwest corner of Caton and Flatbush Avenues, Caton Flats is poised to deliver:

  • Just over 220,000 square feet of residential space for the affordable housing units
  • 16,000 square feet of space for the market, small business incubators and offices
  • 5,000 square feet of supplemental community space to be owned and operated by Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI)
  • 10,000 square feet dedicated to local retail
Congresswoman Yvette Clarke
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams
Mathieu Eugene
City Council Member Mathieu Eugene

“I am proud to witness the groundbreaking for the redevelopment of the Caton Flats here in the community that raised me,” said Clarke, who helped bring the market to Flatbush in her former job as a city council member.

 “From providing business development programs to community building activities, this vital redevelopment will create mobility and foster greater resources in the Caribbean community. The Flatbush Caton Market will promote and uplift Caribbean history, businesses and commerce, entertainment and art, and more. It is a blessing that our community and the rest of New York City will be able to experience and share in the richness of our culture that is stored here in Flatbush,” she added.

Adams called the groundbreaking a positive development that has been a long time in the making for Flatbush.

“When completed, this project will provide hundreds of 100 percent affordable housing units while boosting our small business community. I am also thrilled that it will house the Flatbush Caton Market, a true community institution and a hub for Caribbean-American vendors. My administration recognized the potential of this site from the beginning, investing millions of dollars into the project to bring it to fruition, and I believe it should serve as a model for community-based development throughout the five boroughs,” said Adams.

Eugene praised the city’s Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and the Housing Development Corporation, as well as the many community partners who have worked diligently to make Caton Flats a reality.

“Flatbush Caton Market was a cultural institution in our district, and I am pleased to be part of its transformation into a mixed-use development for housing and commerce,” said Eugene.

“This project is an investment in the community and should be a great opportunity for our hardworking residents, who have put so much of their energy towards supporting the local economy. It is my hope that by working together, we can continue to create new housing and business growth in the 40th district,”  he added.