Demolition Likely for Historic Williamsburg Brewery

"The lots include the main brewery at 56 Meserole Street (made up of five buildings reaching four stories), a two-story residential building at 346 Lorimer Street, and a parking lot at 54 Meserole Street. 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 as a prime Williamsburg development site."

"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 buying rundown buildings in North Brooklyn, fixing them up, and renting them out, often cheaply to artists. 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."

Meserole Lorimer Realty LLC, led by Cheskel Schwimmer of Chess Builders, bought three lots including the Joseph Fallert Brewery complex in January for $19.6 million and applied for a demolition permit. The circa-1870s brewery buildings at 56 Meserole Street, plus a two-story residence at 346 Lorimer and a parking lot at 54 Meserole, create a 20,000-square-foot site already zoned for residential use. The demolition permit has not been issued and no new building permits were filed. The lots were acquired from the estate of Gregory Pasternak, who purchased the brewery in 1996 and previously sought adaptive reuse for 33 apartments in 2013.

Read at Brownstoner