Across The Street From 360 Smith Street

oo

As I was walking to the Carroll Street subway station yesterday for the first time after my vacation, I realized how truly ugly the entire corner of 2nd Place and Smith Street is. The broken, dented chain-link fence, the trash, the sorry looking trees in their below street level tree pits and of course the bright stuccoed walls of the new Hannah Senesh school. And I won't even mention the parking lot. That said, the monster Scarano building at 360 Smith Street proposed for that particular corner scares me even more. And that is saying a lot.
As the neighborhood is valiantly fighting to keep the building low and in keeping with the brownstone character of Carroll Gardens, I am already envisioning the next mega building that could potentially block the sun directly opposite 360 Smith Street.
Across the Street from the subway station is a two story building currently being used as a car repair shop. The place is pretty much an eyesore. It is covered in pigeon poop and graffiti. It is not a nice place. What is interesting though is that there is a parking lot attached to the property which wraps all around to 3rd Street. The address of the place is 375 Smith Street/ 5 3rd Street and according to records, has been owned by a Jimmy Lee since 1992.
The reason why I bring this up is that potentially, a huge building could be erected on that site too. The building is not in a land marked district and as everyone knows, it will take a while before the neighborhood is down-zoned. Now I don't want to start any rumors. I am not aware of Mr. Lee selling his building, but I am sure that developers would offer him a very nice amount for the lot. It is prime real estate and would be worth even more after the building goes up at 360 Smith. How depressing would it be to have dueling modern buildings at the gateway of a brownstone neighborhood?
We should keep a close watch on this address so that we are not taken off guard when the next developer comes knocking at Carroll Gardens door.