{"id":145002,"date":"2026-02-25T17:31:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/145002\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T17:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:31:31","slug":"historic-williamsburg-brewery-likely-to-be-demolished-for-apartments-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/145002\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Williamsburg brewery likely to be demolished for apartments \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"williamsburg\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The historic Joseph Fallert Brewery complex will likely be demolished to make way for apartments. <\/p>\n

Photo by Susan De Vries<\/p>\n

The eye-catching Joseph Fallert Brewery complex on Williamsburg\u2019s Meserole Street may soon meet the wrecking ball, likely to make way for an apartment complex.\n<\/p>\n

City records show the new owner, Meserole Lorimer Realty LLC, applied for a demolition permit for the circa 1870s buildings at 56 Meserole St., first reported by Crain\u2019s<\/a>. The permit is yet to be issued, and no new building permits have been applied for.<\/p>\n

Meserole Lorimer Realty LLC purchased three lots that house the complex in January for $19.6 million. Cheskel Schwimmer of Chess Builders appears to be behind the LLC, signing for a mortgage.\n<\/p>\n

The lots include the main brewery at 56 Meserole St. (made up of five buildings reaching four stories), a two-story residential building at 346 Lorimer Street, and a parking lot at 54 Meserole St. Together, the lots give the new owner a 20,000-square-foot site on the corner of Meserole and Lorimer streets, already zoned for residential use. The brewery was marketed<\/a>\u00a0as a prime Williamsburg development site.<\/p>\n

\"lorimerThe site includes two lots on Meserole Street and one, pictured, on Lorimer Street. Photo by Susan De Vries<\/p>\n

Records show Meserole Lorimer Realty LLC purchased the lots from the estate of Brooklyn property owner Gregory Pasternak, who passed away unexpectedly in 2024 owning numerous buildings in the borough. Pasternak, a Polish immigrant, was known for\u00a0buying rundown buildings<\/a>\u00a0in North Brooklyn, fixing them up, and renting them out,\u00a0often cheaply to artists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pasternak purchased the brewery buildings in 1996, records show, and he filed to convert them through adaptive reuse into a mixed-used building with 33 apartments in 2013. The permit was never issued.<\/p>\n

The complex was built by the Joseph Fallert Brewing Company beginning in the late 1870s through the early 20th century, filings show. In January 1879 Fallert placed an announcement in the\u00a0Brooklyn Daily Times<\/a>\u00a0that he would soon be ready to supply beer from his newly erected Meserole Street brewery. John Platte is listed in early filings as the architect for an 1878 ice house and an 1882 four-story brewery building, and later filings mention architects F. Wunder and Koch & Wagner.<\/p>\n

Historic sketches,\u00a0maps,<\/a>\u00a0and photos show that not all the original buildings survive today and some have changed significantly over the decades. There were once\u00a0wood frame buildings<\/a>\u00a0on the property and a\u00a0smokestack<\/a>, tax photos show.<\/p>\n

\"historicNot all of the brewery\u2019s historic structures have survived to the present day. Photo by Susan De Vries<\/p>\n

The brewery appears to have closed in the early 1920s amidst Prohibition and after the death of Fallert\u2019s son, who took over the business after his father\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The Pershing Warehouse Corp used the property in 1922, and the\u00a0Roman Furniture Company<\/a> used it in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Once a prominent feature of Brooklyn\u2019s architectural landscape, large brick brewery buildings are becoming a rarity. While some have been\u00a0adaptively reused<\/a>\u00a0and turned into\u00a0residential buildings<\/a>\u00a0or commercial spaces,\u00a0many were<\/a> razed<\/a> to make way for larger new developments. While this is a trend the Joseph Fallert Brewery is likely to follow, no demolition permit has been filed yet for the elegant two-story residential building at 346 Lorimer St.<\/p>\n

Records show Schwimmer is behind a number of other new Brooklyn developments, including\u00a02175 Bergen St.<\/a>\u00a0in Ocean Hill, a\u00a0planned six-story building<\/a> at 293 Wallabout St. in Williamsburg, and\u00a02337 Bedford Ave<\/a>. in Flatbush.<\/p>\n

This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper\u2019s sister site Brownstoner<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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