A Prospect Lefferts Gardens building at the heart of a fierce gentrification battle over an ice cream shop has changed hands at a big loss.
The building, 616-624 Flatbush Ave., a mixed-use site whose storefronts include the popular Scoops, which was rescued from eviction in 2024 after a neighborhood-wide effort to save it, has traded for $8.3 million a decade after it fetched $14 million.
The 6-story, 60-unit rental property—a type of asset whose profitability has been less certain after a series of pro-tenant reforms began taking effect in 2019—was sold by Jonas Equities to Yellow Jack Equities in a deal that went into contract Dec. 19, closed Feb. 26 and appeared in the city register Monday.
Jonas took a more than 40% loss with the transaction, which included $5.8 million in acquisition funding from JPMorgan Chase & Co., the register shows.
It’s not clear from state housing records if the building, which is at Chester Court near Prospect Park, contains rent-stabilized units, which often drag down property values because developers can’t easily evict their tenants and replace them with higher-paying market-rate ones. A one-bedroom apartment in the building was listed at $2,400 a month in August, according to StreetEasy.
Scoops, which opened in 1984, had for years been located in the storefront addressed 624 Flatbush. But in 2019, four years after Jonas bought the building, the landlord reportedly declined to renew the shop’s lease and only allowed shop owner Tony Fongyit to remain on a month-to-month basis.
The situation galvanized anti-development forces in the neighborhood, which is also known as Little Caribbean. Once news broke of Scoops’ plight, Equality for FlatBush, a 12-year-old grassroots anti-gentrification group, pulled together a nearly 4,000-signature petition to save the 500-square-foot shop, whose flavors include a vegan butter pecan.
The push paid off. Last fall Jonas signed Fongyit to a seven-year lease, according to Imani Henry, the founder of the 12-year-old Equality for FlatBush, though how the deal will fare under the new ownership is unclear. Efforts to reach Scoops were unsuccessful.
No. 616-624’s retail tenants also include a handful of hair salons and vintage clothing store Granru Market.
The effort to save Scoops wasn’t Little Caribbean’s first time resisting real estate interests. Some neighbors in 2014 brought a lawsuit against developer Hudson Cos. over the scale of The Parkline, a planned 23-story, 254-unit tower. The suit actually managed to temporarily halt construction of the apartment building, which sits next to Scoops.
Larry Bernstein, a Jonas vice president, did not return a call for comment by press time. And Yellow Jacket founder Akiva Kurland declined to respond.
