Construction is underway for Brooklyn's townhouses.

HS Development Partners, a joint venture of Time Equities Inc. and Hamlin Ventures, LLC, is building the first major grouping of single-family townhouses in New York City since the 1920s.

Called "14 Townhouses," the nearly 4,000 s/f homes located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, will comprise almost half a city block and transform State Street from an unfinished urban streetscape into a refined townhouse block.

The modernist brick townhouses, each four or five stories and designed by Rogers Marvel Architects, PLLC, take their inspiration from recent Dutch and British housing designs. They are intended for a sophisticated clientele who want to realize the dream of owning a single-family house, but relish city living over the suburbs.

Up until now, such dreams could only be realized in older townhouses often in need of renovation. With the development of "14 Townhouses," tried-and-true urbanists can enjoy new city homes, featuring dramatic double height entertainment spaces, generous family living quarters and state-of-the-art, sustainable systems.

"Our aim was to create an innovative, architecturally distinguished row house composition along State Street, as well as to develop individual homes whose quality was close to custom-built," said developer Abby Hamlin, president of Hamlin Ventures LLC.

"14 Townhouses" will be comprised of stand-alone homes with four-to-six bedrooms, as well as their allotted land, which includes private garden space.

"Except for the three townhouses built in TriBeCa in the late 1990s, groupings of stand-alone single-family townhouses just aren't developed in New York City anymore," Hamlin said.

"The density permitted on most residentially zoned sites encourages larger scale development and the yield per s/f for multi-family housing is generally higher than from single family housing."

"This site was unique. Although it was part of a much larger development parcel we purchased and could have been developed for multi-family, this portion of the site cried out to be a block of beautiful single family townhouses. It is situated directly across from 24 landmark townhouses and adjacent to a row of five Romanesque brownstones that are individually listed on the National Historic Register. Developing it in any other way would have negated the importance of State Street which is known as a 'textbook illustration of a gracious row house block."

The block was purchased in late 2003 from the Empire State Development Corporation, which had owned it since 1974. "14 Townhouses'" construction represents the first phase of a five-phase development that will include more single-family townhouses, market-rate rental apartments and condominium lofts, affordable housing and a mix of other uses that will include commercial, retail, cultural and institutional space.

Pricing for a home at "14 Townhouses" starts at $2.55 million. Sales began in April 2005.