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Derek2k3

October 8th, 2006, 10:38 AM

Me thinks they're some cheap panels.

http://static.flickr.com/121/263834396_fe540c4898_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/102/263834397_5b104fcd06_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/114/263834398_ec65515b00_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/104/263834399_1d051332c9_o.jpg

ablarc

October 8th, 2006, 11:16 AM

Me thinks they're some cheap panels.
Probably so, but in the photos they look pretty good.

sfenn1117

October 8th, 2006, 11:57 AM

Thanks Derek. Looks like it's 14 floors up. It has a website, but no rendering, but I did find a rendering here:

http://nymag.com/nymetro/realestate/advertorial/21904/index.html

The real thing is not as bad as I thought it'd be.

antinimby

October 9th, 2006, 12:09 AM

Bridgeview does look very nice. I wouldn't mind if most of our residentials came out like that.

krulltime

October 16th, 2006, 06:17 PM

Muss, Developer of Hotel-Office Complex, Plans To Acquire Space in Adams St. Bldg
Downtown Board OK’s Sale of 33,000 Square Feet for $8 Million

By Dennis Holt
10-16-2006

BROOKLYN — Downtown Brooklyn developer Joshua Muss, whose efforts produced Renaissance Plaza and, more recently, the addition to the Marriott Hotel, is taking another step in his vision to expand retail in the area.

The city has agreed to sell Muss the bottom two floors of 345 Adams St., space previously occupied by government agencies, to create more retail space. The building is right next to the Marriott. Community Board 2 on Wednesday approved the sale of the 33,000 square feet for $8 million. This is a land-use issue and will require the usual government approvals.

For a long time, Muss has had his eye on the space which is in a building that wraps around Willoughby Street and onto a part of Pearl Street. Originally, he wanted to create more shopping opportunities for nearby hotel patrons. However, his thoughts have now expanded to creating a whole new retail complex at the intersection of Fulton Street, Adams Street, Boerum Place and Willoughby Street.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle previously published one rendering of that concept that includes the triangular space between Willoughby and Fulton streets as well as the bottom floor facing Fulton and Boerum Place in a new office building Muss hopes to build on that corner.

No More Fulton Mall?

Although there is no overall master plan, discussions have taken place with planners and business leaders that would lead toward new developments at both ends of the Fulton Mall.

The Fulton Mall Improvement Association has obtained $11 million from the city to completely overhaul the street with new signage, bus shelters, paving, plantings and the like. It is also known that it will no longer be a “mall,” and there is speculation that buses will someday be removed from that part of Fulton Street and routes put elsewhere.

City Councilman David Yassky (D-Downtown/DUMBO) made the rounds Wednesday night, appearing at both Community Board 2 and at the regular meeting of Community Board 6. All his recent efforts had been devoted to his failed run for Congress.

At both meetings, he discussed his views on the current status of Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Atlantic Yards proposal. At Board 2, he also discussed the proposal to install a residential permit parking process in Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill and a part of Fort Greene.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation is preparing final documents related to the issuance of Request For Proposals (RFP) for the four housing elements for the park, which should be issued in the next six to eight weeks. Yassky would prefer that the RFP focus on the most minimum structures required to generate the revenues needed for the park. He is sure, however, that the RFPs will focus on the highest bids which is normal in such situations.

On the Atlantic Yards issue, Yassky’s concerns relate primarily to the traffic implications of the development and that traffic measures should be covered in the final plan, not passed off as “things to do.” He even expressed thoughts that the intersections between Flatbush, Atlantic and Fourth avenues should be looked at with overpasses and tunnels in mind.

On the issue of residential permit parking, he flatly admitted that the Department of Transportation is very much against residential permit parking, and asked Board 2 to support permit parking trial runs.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2006

krulltime

October 16th, 2006, 06:20 PM

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10162006/photos/news006.jpg
SEE SPAN: When work is finished, the
Flatbush Avenue approach of the
Manhattan Bridge will look like this
computer image.

By RICH CALDER
October 16, 2006

Here's a first glimpse of Brooklyn's future welcome mat.

The long-neglected Flatbush Avenue corridor into Brooklyn via the Manhattan Bridge will soon get a much needed facelift. The Bloomberg administration is investing about $15 million on beautifying and re-creating a grand gateway to downtown Brooklyn, officials said.

An architectural rendering commissioned by the city's Economic Development Corporation obtained by the Post envisions the avenue's sidewalks filled with large trees and better lighting.

Donna Walcavage, the project's architect, said the sculpture "should be tall and very imposing to fit the area, make a statement, and serve as a signature for entering Brooklyn."

The project focuses on four-fifths of a mile along Flatbush Avenue south from Tillary Street in downtown Brooklyn to Hanson Place in Fort Greene.

Construction is expected to begin next year and completed by 2009.

Copyright 2006NYP Holdings, Inc.

krulltime

October 20th, 2006, 08:32 PM

Condo Sales Begin Next Week at Landmark Telephone Building
Offering Loft-Style Homes in a Landmark While Helping Make Downtown Brooklyn 24/7

by Linda Collins,
published online 10-20-2006

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — With its stated goal of making Downtown Brooklyn more of a 24/7 neighborhood, the Downtown Brooklyn Rezoning Plan called for a greater residential presence. One such development is creating some excitement at Willoughby and Bridge Streets — the landmark former Verizon building that has been undergoing a conversion to residential and where condo sales begin next week.

Originally the Long Island Headquarters for the New York Telephone Company, the classic 1930 building will be called (appropriately) the BellTel Lofts, according to Hal Henenson, executive director of the Prudential Douglas Elliman Development Marketing Group, which is handling sales and marketing for the project.

“We are really excited to be a part of the first major residential conversion in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn, one that will strongly advance the revitalization of the area,” said Henenson, who said there are 461 people on a waiting list.

The project’s developer, David Bistricer of Berkshire Equity LLC, is also excited.

“Although we own over 5,000 residential units in Brooklyn and many commercial buildings, this is the first major renovation we’ve undertaken. And it’s beautiful. And the building itself is a landmark,” he said.

As previously reported in this newspaper, the 27-story office tower, designed by Ralph Walker and built in 1929-30, was designated an individual landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in October 2004. Commissioners called it “a great architectural masterpiece in New York City.” “We have maintained the character of the building throughout,” said Bistricer, who confirmed he lives in Brooklyn but declined to talk about himself. “That includes the lobby where most of the architectural details remain and the marble is all intact.”

But it’s the location and the terraces that inspired him the most.

“You walk out the door [the residential entrance will be at 365 Bridge St. adjacent to the MetroTech Commons] and you’ll be in an almost private garden. It’s beautiful and private and maintained very well by the MetroTech BID. And it has concerts during the summer.”

There are 20,000 square feet of terraces in the building, according to Bistricer. One of those, on the 20th floor, is a 2,500-square-foot commom area with panoramic views.

The 27-story BellTel Lofts will contain 219 units — from studios to one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, ranging in size from 600 to 2,700 square feet. Prices will start at $500,000. Occupancy is anticipated for spring 2007.

Bistricer said he chose the architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle because of its reputation in historic preservation work (like the Grand Central Station renovation).The firm is also well known for new construction (The CourtHouse apartments at Court Street and Atlantic Avenue), and for its residential conversion projects, including 110 Livingston St., 70 Washington St., 166 Montague St., and the former Independence Community Bank, at 130 Court St. in Cobble Hill, which will be a mix of preservation, conversion and new construction.

At Belltel, the firm has designed loft-style layouts and included features like bamboo flooring, sliding glass walls, open kitchens, spa-like baths, large in-unit storage spaces and state-of-the-art fiber optics cable.

All of the residences will have 110-foot ceilings, many with breathtaking panoramic views and outdoor space.

Building amenities include a 6,500-square-foot common area with a fitness center, yoga and exercise room, high-tech screening room, multi-purpose room and a lounge. Additionally, there will be underground parking, a 24/7 business center, a 24-hour attended lobby and a 4,500-square-foot roof terrace with extraordinary views.

The available retail space is 64,000 square feet on three levels — 14,000 square feet on the ground floor, 25,000 square feet on the second-level “selling concourse,” and 25,000 square feet in a “selling basement,” according to Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of the PDE Retail Group.

Among the retailers being targeted by Consolo and her team are an upscale market, health clubs and universities.

In addition to the large retail space, 13 professional spaces will also be sold.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2006

Stern

October 21st, 2006, 06:51 AM

All of the residences will have 110-foot ceilings, many with breathtaking panoramic views and outdoor space.

If you ask me, 110 foot ceilings are just plane excessive. lol.

lofter1

October 21st, 2006, 09:49 AM

LOL ^^^

( maybe that's the only way to ensure those "breathtaking panoramic views" )

ramvid01

October 21st, 2006, 12:24 PM

With those kind of ceilings, you can have the feeling of living in a lobby lol

Xemu

November 5th, 2006, 01:01 PM

November 5, 2006
Street Level | Fulton Mall
Discount Sneakers in a Duplex World

By JENNIFER BLEYER
MARVELL CRUICKSHANK, an apple-cheeked 25-year-old with jet-black braids, belongs to the third generation of her family to shop at Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn.
Her grandmother, who sewed her own clothes, ventured from Brownsville to buy fabric and patterns at Abraham & Straus. Ms. Cruickshank’s mother snapped up Christmas presents at Woolworth’s, enjoying as she did the aroma of the store’s fresh-baked cookies. And Ms. Cruickshank, a community organizer who lives in nearby Farragut Houses, recently snared discount sneakers and green cotton pajamas there for her daughters, Deonna, 8, and Tyonna, 4.
But a great deal of new luxury housing is built or on the drawing board for Downtown Brooklyn, from the BellTel Lofts one block north of the mall to the new condos one block southwest at 110 Livingston Street. With the influx of affluent neighbors, related plans to refurbish Fulton Mall have worried Ms. Cruickshank and some other patrons of the vibrant shopping strip. The mall, they fear, will no longer be for them.
“This mall caters to African-Americans, Latinos, Caribbeans,” said Ms. Cruickshank, sitting in Albee Square at the mall’s edge on an unseasonably balmy afternoon last week. Nearby, a jewelry counter displayed 200 styles of gold door-knocker earrings, and a small running-shoe shop offered Nike Air Force Ones decorated with candy-colored glitter and pictures of Tupac Shakur (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/tupac_shakur/index.html?inline=nyt-per).
•“When they close down all these local shops that cater to our hair, the clothes we buy, the food we eat, where are we going to shop?” Ms. Cruickshank asked. “Round up 10 people here, and I guarantee you they won’t say they want a Banana Republic. We don’t want another Manhattan. Let Brooklyn be Brooklyn.”
Fulton Mall is a commercial heavyweight, according to its merchants association. It draws 100,000 shoppers each day, rings up more than $100 million in annual sales and commands rents of up to $250 a square foot, among the highest of any retail district in the city.
But few of its customers are from the nearby brownstone neighborhoods.
“The challenge the Fulton Mall has is a lack of retail diversity,” said Joseph Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the leader in the effort to renovate the mall. “There are certainly a lot of cellphone stores and shoe stores, for example. But in terms of retail that cuts across a broad socioeconomic spectrum, there’s not a lot right now.”
The first order of business for Mr. Chan is a makeover of the streetscape — streamlining sign clutter, installing new bus shelters — to which the city has committed $9.5 million. As for new stores, Mr. Chan said, the choice will largely be driven by the many newcomers.
“Basically,” he said, “you’re adding thousands of people who are going to need a quart of milk at 10 at night.” Local brokers say the new residents will also need a wine store, a specialty supermarket, new restaurants, dry cleaners and perhaps another bookstore.
•“There are no good restaurants, there’s no midrange apparel or accessories,” said Faith Hope Consolo, an executive with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which handles many of the store rentals in the downtown developments.
“What we’re aiming for is a better neighborhood all around,” Ms. Consolo said. “That doesn’t mean Gucci, but maybe HMV, maybe Zara, maybe Equinox. We’re addressing chain restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and Legal Sea Foods. We’re not asking anybody to leave the street. We just have to bring in new stores in a way that everybody can work together. We’re Botoxing Fulton Street Mall.”
Officials in Downtown Brooklyn also say they do not want to displace Ms. Cruickshank and the mall’s other longtime patrons. In a study of the mall that has served as a guide for Mr. Chan’s groups, the Pratt Center for Community Development recommends actively promoting the mall as a center for “urban gear” and “hip-hop fashion,” and maintaining it as a “uniquely Brooklyn” place.
“You have to merge the old Fulton Mall with the new landscape,” Ms. Consolo said. “It’s kind of like a mixed marriage, and you have to make sure it works.”
Still, Ms. Cruickshank remains skeptical. “If this plan goes through,” she said, “my children won’t be able to shop here. It isn’t fair.”

Lance75

November 6th, 2006, 02:14 AM

lofter1

November 6th, 2006, 08:09 PM

Fulton Mall is a commercial heavyweight, according to its merchants association. It draws 100,000 shoppers each day, rings up more than $100 million in annual sales and commands rents of up to $250 a square foot, among the highest of any retail district in the city.”

Seems from a buisness point of view that it's doing pretty damn good.

“What we’re aiming for is a better neighborhood all around,” Ms. Consolo said (Faith Hope Consolo, an executive with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate). “... maybe HMV, maybe Zara, maybe Equinox ... We’re Botoxing Fulton Street Mall.”
”
Where do these real estate types come from???

londonlawyer

November 7th, 2006, 04:10 PM

“If this plan goes through,” she (Marvell Cruickshank) said, “my children won’t be able to shop here [at the Fulton Mall]. It isn’t fair.”

The Fulton Mall is aggresively unattractive and declasse. Is the loss of a few sneaker/cell phone/gold tooth cap stores really a travesty in anyone's book?

I agree. Fulton Mall is a POS. Ms. Cruickshank fails to realize that downtown Brooklyn now serves people who don't receive Section 8 assistance. I'm sure that the stores she likes will resurface in poorer areas.

Life isn't fair, Ms. Cruickshank. I can't afford $1.5M for a crummy 3 bedroom condo in Manhattan, but I simply deal with it.

Xemu

November 7th, 2006, 05:20 PM

I think this article is interesting because it raises a destinction between "white" and "black" retail. I.E. the Fulton Mall is currently "black" retail, and stores like Bannana Republic are "white" retail. While I don't think such a destinction is necessarily true I do think it's an intersting, if disturbing, concept. It makes me sad to hear people like Ms. Cruickshank quoted in the above NYT article say that if Fulton Mall is cleaned up her children won't be able to shop there.

antinimby

November 7th, 2006, 07:44 PM

Anyway, I say let the market decide. Why should government intervene?

If the stores no longer cater to the residents, then they would eventually disappear on their own due to poor sales. No need to push them out.

Lance75

November 8th, 2006, 03:22 AM

Xemu

November 8th, 2006, 05:07 PM

Ms. Cuickshank's comment that her children will not be able to shop at a cleaner/more diverse Fulton Mall was unsettling to me as well. Is she already convinced that her 8 year old child will grow up not being able to afford or desire shopping and dining beyond 3 Payless Shoe stores and Wendy's?

That's what troubles me too. Thanks for putting it in better words.

She also states that "the mall caters to African-Americans, Latinos, Caribbeans" and seems to imply that to allow the mall to appeal to a wider audience would somehow be wrong. "Let Brooklyn be Brooklyn", she says, as if Brooklyn were only African-Americans, Latinos, and Caribbeans.

The last time I checked, Brooklyn--and the vague notion of Brooklyn culture--wasn't limited to just African-Americans, Latinos, and Caribbeans. A large part of what makes Brooklyn "Brooklyn" is the diversity of the people here.

If we were to have a Fulton Mall that truly represented Brooklyn, wouldn't we also need a dosa cart, a kimchee stand, a deli that serves a decent egg creme, an izakaya, etc to cater to other Brooklynites?

Absolutely right.
Anyway, I say let the market decide. Why should government intervene?

If the stores no longer cater to the residents, then they would eventually disappear on their own due to poor sales. No need to push them out.

The only thing the government's doing to Fulton Mall is replacing the street furniture and cleaning the joint up a bit. No businesses are being forced out. In the end it'll be a better looking Fulton Mall with the same crap stores. If the business do go it will be the result of a changing neigborhood, not any government action.

Lance75

November 9th, 2006, 11:15 AM

The only thing the government's doing to Fulton Mall is replacing the street furniture and cleaning the joint up a bit. No businesses are being forced out. In the end it'll be a better looking Fulton Mall with the same crap stores. If the business do go it will be the result of a changing neigborhood, not any government action.

Very true, although I imagine that there is some unofficial nudging from Joe Chan and Co to Sitt, Laboz, Muss, et al in regards to the immediate area.

I'm a little wary about the seemingly inevitable gentrification of the Fulton Mall. Certainly, no one denies that it needs a lot of cleaning up--from the garbage that's omnipresent on the streets to the tacky and inappropriately sized signage--and that it needs to offer a wider variety of shopping/dining/services, especially in light of the growing diversity of it's immediate residents.

But I'm also slightly concerned (maybe frightened is a better word) that the Fulton Mall might become another anonymous, equally tacky suburban strip mall. The NYT article mentions a broker who's trying to bring in a Cheesecake Factory or Legal Seafood along with a few other chains stores to the strip. I don't know about you guys, but big national chain restaurants that cater to middle American tastes aren't improvements in my book.

Also, is it even possible to have a retail corridor that "cuts across a broad socioeconomic spectrum"? I'm no expert, but it seems to me that, while idealistic and optimal, "downscale" and "upscale" can't really coexist. One will always push out the other.

I'd be very interested in examples to the contrary.

posterboy

November 9th, 2006, 11:56 AM

I agree with most of the above (although I kinda like tacky and inappropriately-sized signage).

I don't understand why they are so desperately trying to de-african-americanize the area. If sneaker and cellphone stores are managed well enough and make the kinds of sales to be able to pay $250 a square foot, then they absolutely belong there. And who needs a Cheesecake factory when Junior's is right on the corner?

Of course a certain degree of gentrification is inevitable, but if you look at the neighborhoods around the area, they are alreay pretty diverse to begin with. Thing is, Fulton Mall attracts black, carribean etc shoppers from all over Brooklyn and that is a good thing. So why fix something when it's not broken (beyond the above-mentioned clean-up measures)?

Way I see it, you have Fulton Mall to the East, City Hall in the middle, and Montague street, a "whiter" shopping and dining area to the West, and these two shopping areas are going to grow together to some extent, but the mixing and mingling is going to occure on their "wings" - developments along Atlantic and Schermerhorn to one side and Tillary etc to the other. And I think there is certainly also room for more "upscale" (read, less black - who are we kidding?) shopping destinations in the more immediate Fulton Mall area, especially with all the residential development downtown, but I don't see why those need to replace what is there. There's plenty room for growth. The area is going to change, and that is good, but there is no need to turn it onto its head and alienate the consumers who have made it a prime retail destination to begin with.

ablarc

November 9th, 2006, 12:35 PM

Certainly, no one denies that it needs a lot of cleaning up...the garbage that's omnipresent on the streets...
What's so hard about cleaning up garbage? You send in a garbage truck and pick up the garbage. Why is everybody making such a big deal out of this?

Xemu

November 9th, 2006, 12:42 PM

[I'm] slightly concerned (maybe frightened is a better word) that the Fulton Mall might become another anonymous, equally tacky suburban strip mall. The NYT article mentions a broker who's trying to bring in a Cheesecake Factory or Legal Seafood along with a few other chains stores to the strip. I don't know about you guys, but big national chain restaurants that cater to middle American tastes aren't improvements in my book.

I agree with you about Cheesecake Factory, but please don't hate on Legal Seafood. It may be a chain, but it definatly doesn't cater to "middle American tastes". It's from Boston originally, and one of the best seafood resturants in the US (at least the ones up there are, can't speak to any others). I'm praying one of these comes to NYC.

Lance75

November 9th, 2006, 12:51 PM

What's so hard about cleaning up garbage? You send in a garbage truck and pick up the garbage. Why is everybody making such a big deal out of this?

Precisely because it seems so easy to remedy. Yet it hasn't been.

ablarc

November 9th, 2006, 12:58 PM

Precisely because it's seems so easy to remedy. Yet it hasn't been.
Is it simple incompetence or is it a conspiracy?

Lance75

November 9th, 2006, 01:26 PM

I agree with you about Cheesecake Factory, but please don't hate on Legal Seafood. It may be a chain, but it definatly doesn't cater to "middle American tastes". It's from Boston originally, and one of the best seafood resturants in the US (at least the ones up there are, can't speak to any others). I'm praying one of these comes to NYC.

Xemu, I'm not hating on Legal Seafood. There was a branch near the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore that I went to a couple of times when I was attending college and I recall having enjoyed my meals there.

However, the fact that you can eat the exact same Legal Seafoods meal in Boston, Boise, Baltimore or Baton Rouge is what concerns me. Despite the fact that it's more than a few cuts above, say, a TGIF, it would still contribute to the homogenization of Brooklyn into anytown, USA--which, in my humble opinion, is not a positive development.

Xemu

November 9th, 2006, 01:54 PM

Xemu, I'm not hating on Legal Seafood. There was a branch near the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore that I went to a couple of times when I was attending college and I recall having enjoyed my meals there.

However, the fact that you can eat the exact same Legal Seafoods meal in Boston, Boise, Baltimore or Baton Rouge is what concerns me. Despite the fact that it's more than a few cuts above, say, a TGIF, it would still contribute to the homogenization of Brooklyn into anytown, USA--which, in my humble opinion, is not a positive development.

True true. But need I remind you that there's more than a few chains occupying space in Fulton Mall as we speak. One more, and one that isn't fast food, isn't gonna hurt.

Lance75

November 9th, 2006, 02:07 PM

I don't understand why they are so desperately trying to de-african-americanize the area.

Thing is, Fulton Mall attracts black, carribean etc shoppers from all over Brooklyn and that is a good thing.

I don't think anyone (well, save for perhaps Ursula Hahn, lol) is suggesting that the Fulton Mall "de-African-Americanize".

Hypothetically, if the Fulton Mall were filled with, say, pricey African art galleries and chic restaurants serving injera and yebig alicha, it would be very Afro-centric--yet, I bet you the current residents of Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill would flock there in droves. I'm not saying that's good or bad, just trying to say that it's less about the color of skin and more about the color of money...

It's good that the Fulton Mall attracts Black and Carribean shoppers, you're right about that. But I think the Fulton Mall would be great if it attracted shoppers of ALL stripes.

Lance75

November 9th, 2006, 06:55 PM

True true. But need I remind you that there's more than a few chains occupying space in Fulton Mall as we speak. One more, and one that isn't fast food, isn't gonna hurt.

You're probably right.

I admit I'm probably more of a zealot vis-a-vis my position on chain restaurants than most.

I only hope that it takes the place of one of the three Payless Shoe stores in the Mall...

BrooklynRider

November 10th, 2006, 12:16 PM

investordude

November 10th, 2006, 02:03 PM

I can't really guage what the actual sentiment of residents is. Is there some reason to believe anyone besides this lady, who has a vested interest in protecting her store from competition, has an issue with an influx of new retail? What Fulton Mall area needs is a BID and some rules about signage, etc. I think this could help it attract more diverse retail to complement what exists there now, letting the better shops and restuarants that have unique ethnic stuff survive and getting rid of the things like payless shoe stores, etc.

investordude

November 10th, 2006, 02:24 PM

If there was really a lack of restaurants in Brooklyn, I'd agree we wouldn't want only chains since that would be boring. But a complete absence of chains is also bad.

Chain restauranats are part of American culture, so a complete absence of them I think starts to be a disadvantage. Yes, of course, people move to Brooklyn to escape suburbia and even to escape the "unadventurous" nature of Manhattan, and so there will always be a large market for unusual and hip restaurants there. But I think most people really just want more choices than they have in the suburbs, rather than being denied access to the things they are used to and thereby having fewer choices.

And for the record, I love the Cheesecake factory.

BrooklynRider

November 16th, 2006, 12:51 AM

It is worth noting that Fulton Mall has a real lack of "sit-down" restaurant choices. Gage & Tollner was such a landmark and it is now a Fridays, anchoring the west end of Fulton. The east has Juniors. In between, you can find White Castle, Wendy's, Burger King, McDonalds and food cart vendors. Without venturing too far into dangerous rhetorical territory, I think that says alot. Juniors and TGI Fridays are upscale restaurants here - at either end - with nada in the middle.

krulltime

November 18th, 2006, 01:09 AM

And it’s all legal!
Myrtle tower tops out above limits

By Ariella Cohen
November 18, 2006

A glitzy tower now in the works for Downtown Brooklyn will be even larger than its 400-foot-tall neighbors, thanks to a city subsidy to builders of affordable housing.

Developer Donald Capoccia, of BFC Partners, unveiled plans this week to build 48 units of affordable housing on the eastern edge of Fort Greene in exchange for a zoning bonus that will allow him to build bigger than would be permitted otherwise on the Downtown site at Myrtle Avenue near Prince Street and Flatbush Avenue Extension.

His Flatbush Avenue tower, one block south of the Manhattan Bridge, will soar 40 stories and include 240 condos, 48 of which will be reserved for moderate-income residents.

Affordable housing advocates have said that this inclusionary bonus promotes class segregation by allowing developers to receive valuable air rights at a luxury site while building the affordable housing elsewhere within the Community Board.

In this case, the developer will build the affordable units nearly two miles away, on Quincy Street at the intersection of Classon Avenue and Downing Street at Community Board 2’s easternmost boundary near Bedford-Stuyvesant. The Pratt Area Community Council [PACC] will manage the six-story building.

PACC executive director Deb Howard said that she and the developer both regretted the need to build the affordable housing off-site.

“But this particular developer made every effort to have the inclusionary housing right on site,” she said. “He could not, so we had to go looking for sites farther afield in the Community Board.”

According to PACC, the developer had tried to negotiate to buy an adjacent lot but lost the parcel to another developer who is now building a mixed-income building on the site.

A spokesman for the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, which is spearheading the implementation of the city’s Downtown Brooklyn Plan, dismissed the notion that off-site affordable housing promoted segregation.

“This development is creating more housing for all levels of income,” said spokesman Shane Kavanagh.

The Quincy Street units will be rentals. Thirty-eight of the 48 will be available for people with incomes under $35,450 — the area’s median income. Nine units will be reserved for residents with incomes that fall below $21,270, or 30 percent of the AMI, and the final apartment will be reserved for a super.

The developer will also receive state and federal low-income tax credits for creating the 96 affordable units as well as lucrative transferable air rights building certificates — which will allow him or other developers to build outside of zoning rules.

Capoccia plans to sell the certificates that he didn’t already put towards his Myrtle Avenue project to another developer, according to Gary Rodney, a spokesman for BFC.

@ Brooklyn Papers

BrooklynRider

November 25th, 2006, 05:21 PM

Segregation is alive and well.

While I generally think that Inclusionary Zoning was created with the best of intentions, it is something that needs to be reworked. "Inclusionary" should not allow off-site options so the developer can create an exclusionary building.

The zoning is young and new, but these glaring loopholes need to be closed.

investordude

November 26th, 2006, 02:13 PM

brooklynrider, any motive beyond financial profit will always end up being segregation or something evil. Giving something to the guy who pays the most will ultimately be the most efficient at promoting diversity because its a color blind algorithm.

Newt Gingrich may not be a popular figure around here, but after welfare reform, Brooklyn became a lot more diverse and integrated. If we extend those reforms to the housing sector, New York would become even more inclusive.

Eugenious

November 26th, 2006, 04:52 PM

The Fulton Mall is kind og the epitome of "Ghetto-chic." It has a rather lowscale feel to it and an aesthetic that is completely derivative of Carribean cities and latin-American cities. The signage is very colorful, but bothersome in its mish-mash approach and amateur design.

If one were to read between thelines of that article, it is kind of clear that the implication is that the area doen't appeal to white shoppers. It has failed to appeal to workers at Metrotech, which was built with its back to the Mall. One has to work hard at not seeing what's being said: The neighborhood is seeing a influxe of high-end residences. The article speaks the truth to the inevitable, Darwin's theory applied to retail will prevail in the area. Ghoeet-chic and Thug clothes, however popular, aren't going to draw more shoppers to the area.

Flipside: As this Mall transforms into another version of the Broadway/SOHO Mall, retail districts in other areas will thrive. The same thing is going to happen on Atlantic Avenue, although I think Atlantic has the higher-end retail rihgt now. There might just be a flip as Atlantic goes down-scale with Atlantic Yards and Fulton goes upscale with new market rate condos in Downtown.

Fulton Mall is THE personification of projects-ghetto-poverty-crime-early-1990's-era. The 99c stores, the sneakers and sport clothing stores, the burger kings, the kfc/tacobell, the pawn shops, the ripoff electronics stores. This is all a symptom of the clientelle that these business are catering to which is primarily low income street chic struggling on welfare group.

What needs to happen is instead of thug zero-taste poor mentality it has to change into the upscale black urban jay z/beyoncee/versace culture which is more tasteful while still being disctinctly black. Basically you need upper middle class blacks, or atleast solid middle class blacks in the area which as far as I know do not exist in the area. The whole problem with the black population (non-caribbeans) is the desire to get out of the ghetto, but those that dont - simply continue lives of despair and poverty. Those that get out do NOT look back and do NOT ever want to go back to the horror that is black brooklyn/projects etc. the successful blacks as soon as they are moderatelly successful flee farther and faster than even whites. Look at the movement of (american) african americans and you will see a flight from the ghettos and projects and historically poor black crime ridden areas. Only the immigrants and hipsters are able to change a neighborhood. This has been proven already in many areas of the city, such as flushing, flatbush, coney island, etc..

investordude

November 26th, 2006, 05:56 PM

I think it's wrong to call the current residents thugs for being poor, or to say its a problem that people want to move some place else from where they were born if they become successful - listen, most successful people go to college and then move wherever life takes them, whether its Brooklyn or Bangalore. I also don't think there should be any desire to prefer one race to another in terms of specialty retail that move in with gentrification.

The beauty of the free market is it does away with all these potentially well intentioned but doomed ideas, and replaced it with a workable model where people move to the place that has the most opportunity for them, with suitable retail following them as they do. That can only lead to more diverse, cool, interesting neighborhoods, rather than onces centrally planned to appeal to a particular group. If you told city planners in the 1970s Williamsburg would be where hip diverse artists would want to live, they would have laughed at you - just shows the market is smarter than other strategies for determining these.

lofter1

November 26th, 2006, 08:05 PM

Parts of Fort Greene were gentrified by blacks, whites, gays, straights ... all saw a place with promise -- plenty of middle class blacks living there, just blocks from the Fulton Mall.

krulltime

November 28th, 2006, 12:30 AM

City Seeks Creative Firms To Fill Vacant Office Space Downtown
Many Companies the City Sought for Brooklyn Moved Elsewhere

by Sarah Ryley
published online 11-23-2006

FORT GREENE — The effort by the city to recruit large, back-office tenants to Downtown Brooklyn has to some extent been unsuccessful, leaving 800,000 square feet of office space vacant in the area that includes Fulton Mall, MetroTech and the Brooklyn Academy of Music cultural district.

To fill that space, and the 4.5 million square feet of additional commercial office space that could pop up in the neighborhood over the next five years, the city has changed course, now brainstorming ways to recruit smaller tenants and creative industries to the area.

Joe Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, said at a meeting Monday with the Fort Greene Association that many of the financial and insurance companies the city originally thought would move to Downtown Brooklyn have instead consolidated their operations, moved to New Jersey or completely offshored.

“Right now, we’re facing a challenge that was not anticipated,” he said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made Downtown Brooklyn his third highest development priority behind Lower Manhattan and the Hudson Yards, committing $275 million in capital expenditures over the next five years for the area under Chan’s purview, which does not include the adjacent Atlantic Yards arena proposal.

Long Island City in Queens ranks fourth. The investment in each area, in addition to the scores of other large development projects throughout the city, is all part of an aggressive effort to attract businesses away from New Jersey, which continues to acquire thousands of New York jobs each year.

The city maintains that this phenomenon is due to the scarcity of office space in the city coupled with the tremendous growth of New Jersey’s Hudson River waterfront developments, which boast large, inexpensive floorplates that are move-in ready.

Between 1958 and 2000, the city’s workforce only jumped 100,000 to 3.2 million workers, and its share of the region’s workforce dropped from 80 percent to 65 percent, according to information provided by the Department of City Planning and the city’s Economic Development Corporation.

There are 70,000 workers in the area covered by the six-week-old Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, which includes the Downtown Brooklyn Council, Brooklyn Academy of Music Local Development Corporation, MetroTech Business Improvement District and Fulton Street Mall.

But apparently, the investment in Downtown Brooklyn and the 11 million square feet of office space already there are not sufficient to lure enough new tenants to the area.

Locals who attended Monday’s meeting said they weren’t sold on the ambitious planning initiatives that Chan presented, which he said would make the area more attractive to residents and potential businesses alike. They included giving several streets a face-lift, improving transportation, building more cultural institutions, creating more open space and diversifying the notoriously lackluster retail in the neighborhood encompassed by the Partnership.

Atlantic Yards Issue Raised

That’s probably because of the pro-large-scale development undertone of Chan’s presentation to a group characterized by its aversion to such projects in their relatively small-scale community. Chan made clear at the end of his presentation that the Partnership’s “job is to help advance development,” and was bombarded with questions about the Atlantic Yards.

“Every time you see irritation of Brooklyn residents, it’s because people are coming in here and trying to Manhattanize us,” said resident Yvette Wright. “We like living here. We moved here for a reason.”

Chan said he is in part basing his new direction for the Partnership on the neighborhood where he lives, DUMBO. He and his team have been in discussions with architectural, engineering, media and publishing firms to find out what they look for when choosing a location, he said.

Roger Fortune, who works in the Partnership’s real estate department, would not be specific about the kind of retail the organization is trying to attract, aside from “retailers that don’t currently have stores in Brooklyn.” He said the discussions are still in the early phases, but mentioned restaurants and nightlife as things creative firms have suggested.

“That’s likely to follow as there are more residential properties in Downtown,” said Fortune.

Residents of the surrounding Fort Greene, Prospect Heights and Boerum Hill neighborhoods who oppose the Atlantic Yards project would say that those are the things being uprooted by all the large scale developments underway in Downtown Brooklyn.

“You have to respect what’s already there and build upon it,” said Peter Vitakis, a member of the Fort Greene Association.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2006

investordude

November 28th, 2006, 02:06 PM

800000 feet vacant out of 11 million - that's a very low vacancy rate, unless I'm missing something. Why is the article worried about that?

Also, what happened to the Albee Square hotel Thor was going to build? The hotel market in Brooklyn and the city in general seems pretty hot, but they never went through. Are they holding out for a major office tenant? Anyone know what the deal is?

The NIMBYs for Atlantic Yards seem to have shown up for the wrong meeting - this is downtown Brooklyn, which doesn't involve eminent domain and which already was rezoned almost 2 years ago. I guess complaining is a sport NIMBYs like even when its pointless.

BrooklynRider

December 5th, 2006, 11:38 AM

I think that Chan's connection to his own neighborhood (DUMBO) and his studies there are kind of irrelevant to Downtown Brooklyn. It is a primariy residential community wit residential development. It is also a "community" that is held to gether a subsidized by the Walentas' Two Trees Management Copany that is subsidizing retail tenents to ensure thatthe neighborhood gets the diversity of supportive retail it needs to survive. Very few developers are as engaged and as paternalistic over an area as Walentas is with DUMBO. By comparison, look at Ratner's Metrotech and wander about its retail promenade. Oh wait, I forgot, thee is no retail promenade. He destroyed the streetscape. He also built the Atlantic Terminal Mall and Office Building as well as the Atlantic Center. These represent the most recent "commercial" development in Downton Brooklyn & Fort Greene. Honestly, I think these some residents look at these relatively recent examples and they garner (and deserve) the anger, distrust, and condemnation of people.

Chan has a mighty big job ahead of him and I think his first foray landed with a thud. Talking about his experience in DUMBO only further alienates people. DUMBO, as a community, has been very effective in curtailing construction, limiting building heights, and has developed as strong a NIMBY reputation as Brooklyn Heights. His reliance on his status as resident of affluent, NIMBY DUMBO is not going to win over folks who are fighting for what they equally believe is sensible development.

If Chan is to succeed, we need to see a spectacularly designed, speculative commercial building go up in the middle of downtown that shows Brooklyn is willing to take a risk. Right now Chan is appealing to companies to come to a downtown that hasn't seen any new commercial construction outside of the anti-septic Metrotech. He need to sell Downtown and he needs to keep potential relocators from seeing Metrotech and think that THAT is what is to come.

investordude

December 5th, 2006, 01:02 PM

Look, the city already voted to rezone Brooklyn. The only question is whether there's interest from commercial tenants. I think as the office market picks up someone will build there, although I'm not really sure you can build 3-4 60 story buildings at once, since that's hard to get interest for even in Manhattan, or the stronger office market of Jersey City.

I agree the fact he lives in DUMBO is irrelevant. But I also think the folks coming to these meetings and complaining don't represent the views of the city or even the local community board necessarily.

BrooklynRider

December 5th, 2006, 04:16 PM

The zoning is done - agreed. The question is: how do you lure prospective commercial tenants to an area that looks they way Downtown Brooklyn looks now. There is NO commercial development in the works and Atlantic Yards (which is not a part of the Dowtown Zone) switched its commercial towers to hotel/residential. So, no one can point there.

Where exactly would Chan like prospective businesses to go? Thor is so focused on Coney Island, we can realistically expect them to be central to any revitalization in Downtown at this time.

investordude

December 5th, 2006, 08:08 PM

When Manhattan office space hits 5%, and it becomes obvious that Hudson Yards is still a ways from happening, I think you'll see commercial interst in Brooklyn.

But like I said, I don't think we'll get 4.5 million of office space. Maybe 1 million of hotel, 1.5 million tall residentail and the rest office is more likely.

Clarknt67

December 6th, 2006, 01:45 AM

Sorry to interupt the current topic but I searched and didn't find any news.

The Sovereign Bank in Brooklyn at the corner of Court & Atlantic (formerly the Independence Bank) is move across the street, kitty corner, into the big empty retail space at the Court House apartments. Once I dealt with my grief over the fact that the space was going to be a BANK and not something useful, like a retail store, it got me thinking.

Is this somehow related to this failed proposal? http://www.brooklynpapers.com/html/issues/_vol28/28_18/28_18nets6.html

Last I heard that project was dead, but I can't find anything about it rising from the dead. But it seems suspicious that the bank is moving out of it's headquarters, it so proudly declared it's home forever not so long ago.

BrooklynRider

December 6th, 2006, 10:52 AM

I can't say whether is is going forward or not, but a Community Board recommendation is non-binding. Two Trees has a favorable track record for working with communities and remaining committed to the communities they build in. I would guess that they will negotiate this and determine whether to build based on profit/loss. Landmarks Preservation has been very pro-development and this mayor is pro-development. Housing seems to be a focus (and real estate continues to drive job creation in the city).

Clarknt67

December 6th, 2006, 02:19 PM

Two Trees has then been very uncharteristically bad at working with this community on this. They've really ticked Cobble Hill off. But CB thinks 10 or 12 stories is too high for that building and TT claims they can't make it feasible at fewer stories. Personally, I doubt that, but I'm not an accountant.

Yeah, I was aware the CB was non-binding, that's why I wondered if anyone had heard of turnaround, because I have not, and I pay pretty close attention. Personally, I think that building could be kind of nice with some floors atop it, sort of like Hearst building but nothing as 21st century as that.

krulltime

December 14th, 2006, 02:45 PM

City in Talks on Future of Big Site For Building in Downtown Brooklyn

BY DAVID LOMBINO - Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 14, 2006

While the city's master plan for downtown Brooklyn was originally spawned to create soaring commercial towers, the city is now negotiating with two private developers to build a $500 million project that would be predominantly residential and retail.

It would be the first major site developed in the area since the city rezoned downtown Brooklyn for increased commercial development two and a half years ago. The project would contain a cavernous retail base that could accommodate a large big-box store such as Wal-Mart, according to sources familiar with the deal.

If finalized, the large site known as Albee Square at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Willoughby Street would contain more than 800 apartments, 20% of which would be "affordable housing"; as much as 100,000 square feet of office space, and 500,000 square feet of retail space designed for an anchor tenant, according to a source familiar with the plans. The lot is currently occupied by the Gallery at Fulton Street, which is a shopping mall, and a large parking garage.

Developer Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities would flip the site he purchased for a reported $25 million in 2001 to a partnership between PA Associates/Acadia Realty Trust and Avalon Properties, according to a source familiar with the deal. The new owners could construct up to 1.5 million square feet of mixeduse space under the recently up-zoned plans. Financial details of the transaction were unavailable, but real estate experts said Mr. Sitt would stand to make a fortune, as real estate values in the area have skyrocketed.

The city owns the land underneath the site and Mr. Sitt controls the development rights. Sources familiar with the negotiations said the city's Economic Development Corp. is unsatisfied with the offer for the land it owns and had hoped to see more office space in the plan.

The president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, said negotiations between Mr. Sitt and the city and the buyers are entering the final phases.

"The city is encouraging the office space, and the retail needs to be done," Mr. Spinola said. "The residential obviously is the surest thing."

About two years ago, the Bloomberg administration passed an ambitious rezoning plan for downtown Brooklyn, currently the third largest commercial district in the city, that envisioned as much as 5.4 million square feet of new commercial space and about 1,000 new units of housing, mostly along Livingston Street. While the market for new commercial buildings is red hot in Midtown Manhattan, no private developer has ventured into downtown Brooklyn since the rezoning to build a large office building.

Nearby, at the planned $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Prospect Heights, developer Forest City Ratner drastically cut back on plans to build office space, and increased the number of planned apartments.

A spokesman for the Economic Development Corporation, Andrew Brent, said yesterday that indications from the private sector seem to favor mixed-use development of residential, retail, and commercial space than large stand-alone office buildings with anchor tenants.

"The negotiations for the Albee Square development are very much ongoing, but we're confident that at the end of the day, while the corporate component may be somewhat less than what was envisioned four years ago, the project will catalyze surrounding office development, and its contribution to Downtown Brooklyn's growing vibrancy will be greater than ever," Mr. Brent said.

In 2004, speculation circulated that Wal-Mart was eyeballing the Albee Square site for its first New York City store. Because the site would be as-of-right, the world's largest retailer would not need approval from the City Council, which has been critical of Wal-Mart's treatment of employees.

The executive director of sales for Halstead Brooklyn, William Ross, said the large retail space with room for a lot of parking would be "the least objectionable space in all of Brooklyn for a Wal-Mart."

Pointing to four large apartment buildings going up nearby along Gold and Myrtle Streets, Mr. Ross said the Albee Square development is the latest sign that Flatbush Avenue is undergoing a residential transformation. The city has committed up to $500 million to improve the area's parks, open space, infrastructure, and to pave the way for the Atlantic Yards project.

"Downtown Brooklyn was rezoned two years ago, and nothing happened. Now, everything is happening at once," Mr. Ross said.

Mr. Ross said developers' calculations in downtown Brooklyn are crystal clear.

"You make twice as much selling condos as you do renting office space," he said.

An executive director for Cushman & Wakefield, Glenn Markman, said the demand for commercial space in downtown Brooklyn is growing, despite the loss of the Albee Square site to mostly apartments.

"I don't think that this is a sign of weakness in the marketplace," Mr. Markman said. "It just takes a while for the commercial market to attract the tenants that we're hoping to get. If that transaction is concludes, it is another positive sign for downtown Brooklyn."

A spokesman for Thor Equities, Lee Silberstein, would not comment for this story.

A spokesman for the president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, said negotiations should be concluded quickly so that Brooklynites could begin enjoy the benefits of new development.

© 2006 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC.

investordude

December 14th, 2006, 03:05 PM

Look, its primarily private property and people should be able to do what they want with it [the city shouldn't demand office space if the private sector thinks housing provides greater profits], but if the city seriously considers Walmart or another big box an improvment over the Fulton Mall, I'd like to understand why.

I don't care about the Walmart politics, but I think the Fulton Mall tenants can upgrade as the neighborhood upgrades, and then you get a better overall experience.

JCMAN320

December 14th, 2006, 03:40 PM

MidtownGuy

December 14th, 2006, 03:46 PM

I am 100% against a WALMART in downtown Brooklyn. Walmart isn't an improvement over anything. Real classy patrons that'll attract. Maybe after a performance at BAM I'll stop in for a giant jar of pickles and some irregular underwear. Won't it kill scores of small businesses in the vicinity while it does nothing to elevate the quality or ambiance of the area? I could live with the Target down the street but now this?

sfenn1117

December 14th, 2006, 04:16 PM

I still can't believe Downtown Brooklyn can't get any office space or buildings to heat up. I don't undertstand it. It looks like Downtown Brooklyn is just going to become one giant highrise bedroom community.

To be honest I don't think the developer is even trying. In the article he clearly says its economics; he can make much more money with condos than office rents.

BrooklynRider

December 14th, 2006, 04:35 PM

I hope Wal-mart is kept at bay in favor of a Whole Foods/Trader Joes or another retailer with better labor records.

I do think one thing that is hurt Brooklyn as a commercial development zone is the crowded subway system. Once any line gets between Atlantic/Pacific Street and Manhattan it is packed for one ofthe most unpleasant stretches of subway riding.

I don't believe an commercial building/tenants will seriously consider Brooklyn until Flatbush Avenue Extension is transformed. Downtown Brooklyn, in its present state, is extremely unattractive both aesthetically and as a business location.

pianoman11686

December 14th, 2006, 05:03 PM

The developer will build whatever the market tells him to build. With the condo boom waning, we might see a flip-flop back to commercial development.

I do agree with the sentiments about Wal-Mart, though. This isn't the right location. If they want to be in the city, let them find a place somewhere in an abandoned manufacturing area (a la Ikea) and have their big ugly store and parking lot. BTW: didn't the City Council enact a bill last year that makes it a lot harder for Wal-Mart to get the necessary approvals to open a store?

krulltime

December 14th, 2006, 06:40 PM

BTW: didn't the City Council enact a bill last year that makes it a lot harder for Wal-Mart to get the necessary approvals to open a store?

I am not sure but according to the article they might...

In 2004, speculation circulated that Wal-Mart was eyeballing the Albee Square site for its first New York City store. Because the site would be as-of-right, the world's largest retailer would not need approval from the City Council, which has been critical of Wal-Mart's treatment of employees.

lofter1

December 14th, 2006, 08:22 PM

BTW: didn't the City Council enact a bill last year that makes it a lot harder for Wal-Mart to get the necessary approvals to open a store?

City Council Stated Meeting - March 1, 2006

gothamgazette.com (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/searchlight/20060301/203/1777)

MEETING SUMMARY: HEALTHCARE FOR GROCERY WORKERS

The New York City Council overrode its first mayoral veto under the leadership of Speaker Christine Quinn in an effort to require grocery and "big box" stores like Walmart to provide health care coverage for their employees.

The veto override relates to an amendment (Intro 758-A) to the Health Care Security Act (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/searchlight/20050817/203/1533), a previous bill passed last year that requires employers to contribute $2.50 for each hour an employee works, or $5,000 a year for a full-time employee toward the worker's health costs.

The amendment changes the act (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/searchlight/20051011/203/1614) so that it applies to stores with more than 50 employees (the previous bill said 35 or more employees) and excluded temporary and seasonal workers. The bill also applies to large stores, like Walmart, which use a significant amount of their space to sell food.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed both measures, arguing that they violate federal law, which limits state and local government involvement in employee benefits.

The council overrode the mayor by a vote of 48 to 2; Republican Councilmember Andrew Lanza and Democrat Simcha Felder sided with the mayor. The council only needs a two-thirds majority to override the veto.

***

http://www.hotelbruce.com/01_02/bruceblog_3-2-05.php

Wal-Mart’s actions are cheap payback, typical behavior from a corporation that ‘pursuades’ its employees to not unionize and insists that its suppliers move oversees. The payback in this case is Wal-Mart being rebuffed by Sacramento, California and New York City in the last two weeks. In New York, city council told Wal-Mart ‘no, thanks’ after the retailer wanted to locate in a development in Rego Park, Queens. "The idea of Wal-Mart was overshadowing what could very well be a good project," Melinda Katz, chairwoman of the council's Land Use Committee, told The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/nyregion/24walmart.html).

posterboy

December 14th, 2006, 08:47 PM

The idea of a Wal Mart in downtown Brooklyn makes me gag. I agree with Brooklynrider - a Whole Foods/ Trader Joe's or a similar (and smaller) retailer would create greater value in the neighborhood. A Wal Mart at this location would not serve the increasing condo-dwelling population of the neighborhood, but attract incredible amounts of traffic from all over the borough. And I don't think what we want on Flatbush is more traffic. The presence of Wal Mart is sure to be a turn-off to any developer who may be considering a large-scale commercial development at any point in the near future.

Oh, and Wal Mart is the spawn of the devil. But that's just my humble (and otherwise very pro-market) opinion.

antinimby

December 15th, 2006, 02:07 AM

Where are the NIMBYs when you need them?

BrooklynRider

December 15th, 2006, 11:14 AM

Well, in the case of Downtown Brooklyn, I think you'll find very few NIMBY's with regard to building - and building tall. Residents of Brooklyn are hungry for commercial and residential development in the rezoned Downtown area. However, Brooklyn doesn't need to be the testing borough for Walmart to enter New York City. Build it in the base of Ratners Beekman Street Tower or the Norman Foster Building uptown. Maybe they can accommodate it in 15 CPW. Stick it in Manhattan first, just like K-Mart, and then we can see about rolling it out city-wide.

Under those conditions, a Walmart ain't so attractive a notion.

antinimby

December 15th, 2006, 06:41 PM

What about Walmart NIMBYs?

Surely there must be some in DT Brooklyn.

Lance75

December 19th, 2006, 04:27 PM

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/12/19/silver_delays_a.php

If true, then this is the best news I've heard in a while.

sfenn1117

January 15th, 2007, 11:23 PM

These are from Saturday.

Oro Condos....306 is 3 stories up

http://i10.tinypic.com/33ux2rl.jpg

313 not out of the ground yet (far right)

http://i12.tinypic.com/2qvt4yw.jpg

Walking along Flatbush Ave (I'd have taken more pics but the batteries in my camera died) I see tremendous potential in the next several years. The east side of the road is lined with car repair shops, crap two story buildings and gas stations. It won't take long to be lined with 30-40 story condo towers. Too bad we can't get some 60-70 story towers, the area can certainly handle it.

I guess Brooklyn will just forever be height limited....a Vancouver, or San Diego. Thankfully it's not as bad as Stamford.

sfenn1117

January 15th, 2007, 11:28 PM

Forgot 85 Flatbush...also not out of the ground yet. One of the most exciting designs from a non-starchitect going up.

http://i3.tinypic.com/2z7j1us.jpg

Eugenious

January 15th, 2007, 11:56 PM

I hope Wal-mart is kept at bay in favor of a Whole Foods/Trader Joes or another retailer with better labor records.

Whole Foods is not exactly pro-labor.

I'd rather have a normal supermarket not one of these super-uber every kind of meat and fish and cheese and the world and 105 different kinds of olives stores. Just give me a damn good Keyfood or Shoprite like the one on 7th Ave or Shoprite on McDonald and 18th and I'll be fine.

In fact the checkout lines at Whole foods and their overpriced-over-the-top products are not for everyone.

As for Walmart they should take the most far away, most polluted and deserted area of the city and hand it over to Walmart let em build a super center and do whatever it is they want. It'll be a win-win for everyone. There's still no shortage of polluted and abandoned spaces in the boroughs.

antinimby

January 15th, 2007, 11:57 PM

What ever happened to Waldbaums?

I used to like them a lot.

antinimby

January 16th, 2007, 12:20 AM

Forgot 85 Flatbush...also not out of the ground yet. One of the most exciting designs from a non-starchitect going up.What does 85 Flatbush look like?

sfenn1117

January 16th, 2007, 12:31 AM

http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=107494&postcount=173

sfenn1117

January 20th, 2007, 12:18 PM

Another 400 foot condo proposed for the same area....80 dekalb ave.

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=5&allisn=0001331233&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt=

Rendering at http://www.kondylis.com/ go to projects, and 80 Dekalb Ave. It's an average Kondylis building.

Strattonport

January 20th, 2007, 01:06 PM

What ever happened to Waldbaums?

I used to like them a lot.

They're still around (http://www.waldbaums.com). They were bought out by A&P and largely remains a chain in Brooklyn/Queens and Long Island.

Stern

January 20th, 2007, 02:56 PM

lofter1

January 20th, 2007, 03:43 PM

Re: Kondylis at 80 Dekalb Avenue

Not a good enough looking building --- considering the location and that it will be seen by each and every person in Ft. Greene Park ...

Google Map (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=84+DeKalb+Ave,+Brooklyn,+NY+11201&ie=UTF8&z=15&ll=40.691475,-73.979359&spn=0.013764,0.042658&om=1)

Empire State

January 27th, 2007, 04:26 PM

Stern

February 3rd, 2007, 01:06 AM

The Brooklyn Paper:

Trump Eyeing Brooklyn?
By Stephen Hanks
for The Brooklyn Paper

The Donald has his eye on Brooklyn.

Jealous that The Bruce (as in Ratner) is getting lots of attention for his Frank Gehry-designed Atlantic Yards Xanadu, Donald Trump now says he’s eyeing projects in the land of his youth.

“My dad always jokes that he spent years to get out of Brooklyn [where Trump Sr. was born and raised], and now look at what’s going on there,” Donald Trump Jr. told City Scoops, a new Manhattan publication.

“That Ratner project is very interesting and a huge undertaking. Brooklyn is now a very viable market … and we think that there is potential for us there. Maybe not now, but down the road. Something along the waterfront would be great.”

The Trumps already have buildings on the west bank of the Hudson, so why not expand into the east bank of the East River?

Indeed, the Donald himself told the magazine that he was thinking about it.

“We’ve definitely looked at Brooklyn and have most definitely been approached,” the Big Man told the magazine. “But nothing that would merit the Trump name so far.”

He wouldn’t say more, but the imagination reels.

Trump Army Plaza, anyone?

Derek2k3

February 3rd, 2007, 04:47 PM

The city should demolish this monster on Cadman Plaza near Borough Hall and build Brooklyn's tallest here. Nearly every subway line runs underneath and it's across from MetroTech. It's also geographically center in almost every angle of the Brooklyn skyline.

Just imagine coming off the Brooklyn Bridge and this thing being directly ahead...most tourists now probably get off the bridge and just want to turn back. The blue dot is the site of that Renzo Piano tower.

BrooklynRider

February 3rd, 2007, 10:15 PM

I don't know. From the Borough Hall plaza side, it really is a handsome building. I find it rather unique amongst most buildings in Brooklyn or Manhattan.

I know what you mean about having a landmark for folks coming off the bridge, but I think that whole NY Tech campus at Tilliary and Addams Street ought to be demolished and a tower worthy of a tech school erected.

Lance75

February 4th, 2007, 10:19 AM

As long as we're playing SimCity Brooklyn...

I wouldn't mind if the building on Cadman Plaza were torn down, but nothing else should be built there. How about a small park area instead? That part of town could use some additional green space.

If another building has to go up, then it should be kept low scale, and the design should be something that stands up to the gorgeous U.S Post Office. Between the Post Office and Borough Hall, the current building looks woefully out of place, like a midrise for municipal workers from a poor Eastern Bloc country.

And as long as we're redoing things, I say tear down the god-awful MetroTech and rebuild from scratch. Even Atlanta and Houston would be ashamed of that atrocity.

Lance75

February 6th, 2007, 08:36 PM

Looks like serious changes might be afoot...

Albee Square Mall headed for demolition
By Erik Engquist for NewYorkBusiness.com

The Gallery at Fulton Street, usually called the Albee Square Mall, has been sold for approximately $125 million and appears headed for the wrecking ball.

Sources say Thor Equities reached an agreement yesterday to sell its lease, which has 70 years remaining, to Acadia Realty Trust and its development partner P/A Associates, headed by Paul Travis and Aaron Malinsky. They are likely to tear down the downtown Brooklyn mall to take advantage of a 2004 rezoning to build a much larger mixed-use project.

The land underneath the mall is owned by the city, which will get a cut of the sale price.

Whatever is built to replace the mall will have to be approved by the Bloomberg administration even if the project complies with the existing zoning.

Thor purchased the low-scale retail complex and an adjacent three-level parking garage for a reported $25 million in 2001, made some renovations and gave it a more elegant name. But when offers for the property last year surged past $100 million, it became clear that its future would involve more than a face-lift.

The new zoning allows for 1.4 million square feet of construction, including residential units and office space towering over ground-level commercial establishments. A hotel has also been contemplated.

The principal of Thor Equities, Brooklyn resident Joe Sitt, at one time envisioned building a 60-story edifice at the Flatbush Avenue end of the property, but lately has been focusing on a grandiose plan to build a ritzy amusement park and apartments in Coney Island, near his home.

The Gallery at Fulton Street, as well as other stores along the Fulton Street, do a brisk business but mainly for low-end merchandise.

bklynite

February 12th, 2007, 02:30 PM

With the Albee Sq. news, is there any movement on the plans for Boerum Place between Fulton and Livingston?

see: http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=111477&postcount=187

krulltime

February 13th, 2007, 02:20 AM

Deal Would Triple the Size of the Albee Square Mall in Brooklyn and Add a High-Rise

By ANDY NEWMAN
February 13, 2007

The Downtown Brooklyn shopping plaza formerly known as the Albee Square Mall will soon undergo yet another incarnation: It will be razed, rebuilt at triple the size and topped with a high-rise with offices and a thousand apartments, its prospective new owners said yesterday.

The mall is being sold to a partnership of developers for about $125 million, two people with knowledge of the negotiations said. Today, the city’s Industrial Development Agency is expected to approve $3.2 million in tax breaks related to the sale for the new owners, a coalition including a nationally prominent firm, MacFarlane Partners of San Francisco.

The partnership, Albee Development L.L.C., has drawn up a letter of agreement with the current owner, Thor Equities, said Roxanne Donovan, the new team’s spokeswoman. Thor Equities, which bought the mall for $25 million in 2001, would not comment yesterday.

Albee Development’s plans, Ms. Donovan said, call for nearly half a million square feet of retail space, up from 150,000; about 125,000 square feet of Class A office space; and 1,000 rental apartments, 20 percent of which would be for tenants of moderate income.

The size of the project was made possible by the rezoning of much of Downtown Brooklyn in 2004, along with a seemingly endless economic boom.

The current mall, the Gallery at Fulton Street, is three stories high. There is no specific height planned for the tower, but the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, Daniel L. Doctoroff, said that the project would be “one of the tallest buildings in Downtown Brooklyn.”

The project, to be known as the Center at Albee Square, would have to go through several layers of government approval, but the new zoning allows more than 1 million square feet of development on the site. The pending sale was reported in Crain’s New York Business last week. The city owns the land under the mall, and Mr. Doctoroff said a tentative deal calls for the new owners to pay $28 million in rent over the next four years.

When the Albee Square Mall opened in 1980 at a pivotal spot on the Fulton Street pedestrian plaza, where much of black Brooklyn and Queens shops, it became a fashion destination for the young.

In a 1988 paean to the place called “Albee Square Mall,” the comic rapper Biz Markie described a typical jaunt:

I step in the place and shop around for a while

Buy some jewelry for Treny and Ali, and after that I’ll

Go take a stroll inside of Gibb’s Pups

Then buy some fresh silks, Bally’s too.

But the mall was also beset with problems, including rent strikes by store owners and endless complaints about security and maintenance. In 1990, Forest City Ratner bought the mall, rechristened it the Gallery at MetroTech, promised to bring it upscale, then seemed to lose interest.

In 2001, Joseph L. Sitt of Thor Equities bought the mall, named it the Gallery at Fulton Street and promised to remake it in the image of a palatial Italian villa with granite floors, national retailers like the Gap and tuxedoed greeters.

He got as far as spiffing up the first floor and putting a new awning on the outside. The basement level is a mostly vacant bunker. In place of a greeter in a tuxedo stands a man wearing a sandwich sign over his parka, advertising a sale at a leather coat store inside.

However humble, the mall is home to dozens of merchants, some of whom were upset over the new plans.

Eric Waltower, owner of Cunora Accessories, said he was selling jewelry from a cart on a nearby sidewalk two years ago when he was tempted inside. He sunk $30,000 into the space, which is now filled with necklaces, handbags and shiny belts.

“If they’d told me at the first meeting that they were looking to get rid of the place,” he said, “I’d have stayed out on Bridge Street.”

One of his customers, Janae Woodbury, 14, of Bushwick, said she would be sad to see the mall torn down. She brightened when she learned that a bigger mall was planned.

“That would be better,” she said. “They need more stores.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Stern

February 13th, 2007, 03:34 AM

This is shaping up to be the Time Warner Center of Brooklyn.

antinimby

February 13th, 2007, 06:01 AM

^ Wishful thinking.

If I know Brooklyn, it'll probably end up resembling Forest City's Atlantic Terminal but with condos in the tower instead of office space.

http://www.fcrc.com/images/projects/galat21b.jpg

ablarc

February 13th, 2007, 08:03 AM

the project would be “one of the tallest buildings in Downtown Brooklyn.”
...but of course just shorter than Williamsburgh Savings.

NIMBYs prolly wouldn't want too much momentum; the borough might lose its character.

ZippyTheChimp

February 13th, 2007, 08:50 AM

The Albee Square Mall sits on the site of a demolished gem, the RKO Albee Theater (http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1302/)

lofter1

February 13th, 2007, 10:20 AM

Some links to pics from the comments at that ^^^ link:

This (http://iii.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/articles/10514689.3381/1.JPEG) photo of the RKO Albee is supposed to be from the 1960's.
posted by Lost Memory (http://cinematreasures.org/members/profile_view_ind.php?id=3871) on Nov 11, 2005 at 7:04am***

A rare view of the auditorium.

The Albee was one of three large theatres in downtown Brooklyn designed by Thomas W. Lamb, preceded by the Strand and Loew's Metropolitan:

www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/bkalbee01.jpg (http://www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/bkalbee01.jpg)
posted by Warren (http://cinematreasures.org/members/profile_view_ind.php?id=1239) on Dec 29, 2006 at 9:24am

bklynite

February 13th, 2007, 10:55 AM

any news?

finnman69

February 13th, 2007, 12:39 PM

I saw a curtainwall section detail of the condo tower. It has glass that slants inward up from each floor slab, giving the tower sort of a fish scale look. At each floor there is a continuous terracotta banana profiled sunscreen hung outboard at each floor level. There is more terra cotta screening on the City tech building.

The condo tower is on Tillary Street, the north end of the site, the 8 story City Tech building is on the south end of the site. There is to be a large enclosed connecting pedestrian bridge crossing over Jay Street.

the project is going through an Environmental Impact study so it will be a while before it can move forward.

bklynite

February 20th, 2007, 02:46 PM

I walked through the area where Belltel is yesterday -- it really does not fit with the surrounding character of businesses. The walk to Metrotech is uninviting -- you have to cross several lanes of service underpass roads. Seems like a long process to transform Downtown

Eugenious

February 20th, 2007, 04:03 PM

krulltime

February 20th, 2007, 06:52 PM

I saw a curtainwall section detail of the condo tower.

Where exactly did you saw it? At the site? Sounds interesting looking. Anyway you can take a pic?

Derek2k3

February 27th, 2007, 11:44 AM

Bridgeview Tower.
http://www.bridgeviewtower.com/

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/134/404665034_b5c272c159_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/404665039_5d6fea7530_o.jpg

antinimby

February 27th, 2007, 11:52 AM

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/404665039_5d6fea7530_o.jpg
Are there plans for a new building at this corner (where the pine tree now stands)? --------^

bklynite

March 1st, 2007, 08:36 AM

Downtown Brooklyn Is Booming

BY MICHAEL STOLER
March 1, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/49594

Everyone loves Brooklyn, and that's especially true of its president, Marty Markowitz, the borough's biggest promoter, salesman, and cheerleader. "My agenda as borough president is to focus on one thing: making Brooklyn a better place to live now, and for future generations," he said. "Remember, if it's good for Brooklyn residents and businesses, it's good for New York City."
Downtown Brooklyn is at the forefront of the dramatic changes that have been taking place across the borough's landscape. More than 5,000 condominium units, 2,000 hotel rooms, and hundreds of thousand of square feet of retail and office space are in the development pipeline. They will transform the look and feel of the neighborhood.
Big development deals are a significant part of the action. Last Thursday, a joint venture of Acadia Realty Trust, P/A Associates, AvalonBay Communities, and MacFarlane Partners agreed to purchase the lease on the Gallery at Fulton Street, its attached parking lot, and the former Albee Square Mall from Thor Equities for about $125 million. The land under the mall and the parking lot are owned by New York City.
The new owners plan to demolish the facility and construct a 1.6 million-square-foot mixed-use complex called the Center at Albee Square which will have retail, office, and residential rental units. Arcadia and P/A Associates will develop 475,000 square feet of retail space that may include a major discount department store. AvalonBay Communities and MacFarlane Partners will build 1,000 rental apartments, 20% of them for tenants of moderate incomes. The two joint ventures would build and construct a total of more than 125,000 square feet of office space. The new owners will also receive about $1.8 million in city tax subsidies through sales tax exemptions and a mortgage tax waiver.
As I reported last September, the City University of New York and Forest City Ratner Cos. plan to begin construction of a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use tower in the heart of downtown Brooklyn later this year. The development on the campus of the New York City College of Technology, to be located at 300 Jay St. in the MetroTech Center, will occupy an entire city block bounded by Jay, Johnson, and Tillary streets. The first eight floors will house classrooms and a majority of the urban college campus; the upper floors will be for luxury residential condominiums.
Meanwhile, Polytechnic University is exploring a joint venture with Forest City Ratner Cos. on its campus in MetroTech, real estate sources said. The transaction would include the sale of about 800,000 square feet of available air rights for development. In addition, it is rumored that Forest City has plans to construct a residential condominium on the former site of Brooklyn Technical High School; the school would move to MetroTech.
HOTELS
Before 1998, when the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge opened at 333 Adams St., a new hotel had not been built in the borough for 68 years. In October, a 24-story, 280-room hotel opened adjacent to the Marriott, an expansion that brings the overall number of rooms to 660 rooms, making it one of the largest hotels in New York.
There are about 773 hotel rooms under construction, and industry leaders expect more than 2,000 rooms to arrive in downtown Brooklyn in the next five years.
This spring, Boymelgreen Developers plans to open the 93-room Smith Hotel at 75 Smith St. at Atlantic Avenue. The hotel will be located in a 13-story building that will also house 50 luxury residential condominiums.
Later this year, McSam Hotels plans to begin construction of a moderate-priced hotel with about 200 rooms at Nevins and Scherhorn streets.
In the fall, the Lam Group is expected to complete a 300-room Sheraton and a 200-room Starwood Aloft Hotel, a spinoff of its W Hotel chain. These properties will be adjoining lots at 216–228 Duffield St. near Willoughby Street. Real estate sources said a luxury hotel, possibly Brooklyn's first W Hotel, may be headed to Flatbush Avenue.
The building spree has prompted a warning from the president of McSam Hotels, Sam Chang: "The hospitality market in downtown Brooklyn does not need all these rooms and cannot absorb the supply."
RESIDENTIAL AND CULTURAL EXPANSION
The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership estimates 20 residential development projects are under construction, and 20 more projects are planned in the area; 3,991 condo units under construction or recently completed, and an additional 1,140 condo units are planned.
The city has announced plans to transform the area between Fulton and Lafayette streets near Fort Green Park into Brooklyn's cultural center. The $650 million Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District will be built around the Brooklyn Academy of Music and will include a theater and arts library, a dance studio, a public park, a museum and gallery, an underground parking lot, and a residential high-rise. The project will include the 299-seat Theater for a New Audience designed by Frank Gehry. The dance studio would be located inside the 20-story residential tower with 150 apartments, half of which would be affordable housing.
"The area is around BAM, and all of downtown Brooklyn is growing," the president of Newmark Knight Frank, James Kuhn, said. "Park Slope is hot, especially since the upzoning of Fourth Avenue."
The Clarett Group is developing a 30-story tower with 108 units, called Forte, at 230 Ashland Place in the Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District. About 65% of the condominiums reportedly are priced at less than $1 million, and residents are benefiting from discounted real estate taxes stemming from the 15-year 421a tax abatement.
In 2003, a joint venture of Hamlin Ventures and Time Equities acquired a two-acre site to construct a mixed-use development on the Hoyt-Schermerhorn urban renewal site. It is constructing a development of 500,000 square feet that includes new market-rate singlefamily townhouses, lofts and apartments, and 217 units of affordable housing aimed at providing housing for former homeless people and residents with special needs. The remainder will be for artists, lowincome workers, and a mix of retail, cultural, and commercial uses. The first phase of the project, 14 townhouses, has been completed. The second phase, Schermerhorn House — a residence for Common Ground and the Actors' Fund featuring affordable housing, a café, and a black box theater — is under construction.
"As a result of market forces and public actions, specifically rezoning, downtown Brooklyn is experiencing a surge of new, primarily residential development that will strengthen adjacent neighborhoods and invigorate the downtown core," the principal of Hamlin Ventures, Abby Hamlin, said. "The new development will connect vibrant residential communities to downtown's retail, cultural and business center."
The sales office opened last month for Oro Condo, a development of Ron Herscho and Dean Palin. The pair of 40-story condominium towers, with a price tag of $400 million, is the tallest new construction in Brooklyn. Located at 306 Gold St., Oro Condo was the first ground-up residential highrise condominium built after approval in 2004 of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan, which rezoned the area to permit larger residential as well as commercial development.
"Since the opening of the sales office last month, we have contracts for 56 apartments at a level much higher than anticipated," Mr. Palin said.
In January, AvalonBay Communities purchased a parcel of land on the southern portion of the block bounded by Gold Street, Flatbush Avenue, Myrtle Avenue, and Prince Street. The company paid about $70 million to an assemblage of sellers. The company expects to begin construction in the second half of 2007 of a 42-story residential rental tower.
Later this year, North Development Group will begin construction of a 21-story residential condominium tower with 108 units. The building will be located at 85 Flatbush Ave. Extension at Tillary and Duffield streets. The company is also planning to begin construction of a 70-unit condominium tower at Nassau Street near the Manhattan Bridge
"The demonstrated high demand for Brooklyn defines it as the leading destination for the young urban professional and growing families looking for affordable, high-quality housing, driving the absorption of new condominium development," the president of Metropolitan Valuation Services, Steve Schleider, said.
A partner at Aria Microwave Systems, Wayne Cheo, added: "The proximity to Wall Street, the Brooklyn and New York City courts, MetroTech, and endless transportation makes downtown Brooklyn an idea place to live."
A number of other residential condominium developments are in development in downtown Brooklyn.
Berkshire Capital is converting the 27-story, 509,000-square-foot Verizon Building at 7 Metro Tech Center into 244 condominium units and 34,000 square feet of retail.
In Brooklyn Heights, at 166 Montague St., the 10-story, 50,000-square-foot landmarked Franklin Trust building is being converted from office into residential condominiums.
The former home of the New York City Board of Education at 110 Livingston St. has been converted into a 300-unit condominium, a development of Two Trees Management.
The former headquarters of Williamsburgh Savings Bank, the landmarked tower at One Hanson Place, is being converted into 189 luxury condominiums by the Dermot Co. and Canyon Johnson Urban Funds.
"The addition of nationally recognized retail names that are looking in the marketplace will bring a new shopping experience to this area," a principal at PRD Realty, Scott Domansky, said. "Citibank and Borders Books have taken the base of the Williamsburgh Bank Building. The Target store located in the Atlantic Mall is known to be one of the top three revenue producing stores within Target's chain."
THE OFFICE MARKET
Class A office space is needed all over the city, especially in downtown Brooklyn.
The Treeline Cos. has announced plans to construct a 120,000-square-foot Class A office building at 177 Livingston St., with completion scheduled before summer.
"We are in the process of redeveloping the property, a portion of the Macy's stores on Fulton Mall that was being underutilized," the executive vice president of Treeline Cos., Michael Shor, said. "The property is synergistic with our similar redevelopment of 180 Livingston Street across the street, where we have the MTA as our major tenant. Our view is that Livingston Street is the next area of office development, along with the exciting retail and residential opportunities in the area. In a way, Livingston Street is the gateway to the Atlantic Terminal, the Nets stadium, and the Ratner project, as well as to Albee Square."
"If there's one thing downtown Brooklyn needs, it's a better office supply," a principal, at the Hudson Cos., David Kramer, said. "When Hudson was looking for office space recently for our own business, we were disappointed in the availability of basically tired, Class B office space. As residential and retail continue to develop in downtown Brooklyn, the area could still stand to benefit from improved office supply, which would continue Brooklyn's journey as a 24/7 standalone location."
I concur with the president of Sholom & Zuckerbrot Realty LLC, Frank Zuckerbrot, when he says downtown Brooklyn "is very active and arguably the strongest development market in New York City. It is truly going through a renaissance."
Mr. Stoler, a contributing editor to The New York Sun, is a television broadcaster and senior principal at a real estate investment fund. He can be reached at mstoler@newyorkrealestatetv.com.
March 1, 2007 Edition > Section: Real Estate (http://www.nysun.com/section/22) > Printer-Friendly Version

ablarc

March 1st, 2007, 08:42 AM

The building spree has prompted a warning from the president of McSam Hotels, Sam Chang: "The hospitality market in downtown Brooklyn does not need all these rooms and cannot absorb the supply.
A self-serving statement?

sfenn1117

March 1st, 2007, 12:51 PM

In January, AvalonBay Communities purchased a parcel of land on the southern portion of the block bounded by Gold Street, Flatbush Avenue, Myrtle Avenue, and Prince Street. The company paid about $70 million to an assemblage of sellers. The company expects to begin construction in the second half of 2007 of a 42-story residential rental tower.

This is a new one. I shudder to think what atrocity Avalon will bring to downtown Brooklyn.

bklynite

March 1st, 2007, 03:31 PM

Avalong can't be much worse that the traffic snarl and desolate expanses that are there now...

Derek2k3

March 2nd, 2007, 12:12 AM

This is a new one. I shudder to think what atrocity Avalon will bring to downtown Brooklyn.

This was the site owned by Isaac Katan. He was going to construct a few buildings 28-32 stories each. All of the businesses fronting Myrtle have already closed and the site is directly across from the planned 400' SOM tower.

sfenn1117

March 2nd, 2007, 01:34 AM

^I'm hoping the SOM tower is something grand....it's a sharp triangular site that begs for something creative.

The Avalon Bay site is huge, and even a 42 story tower could be a hulking mess. Without zoning/height limits it could be a slender 70 story tower. This is why Chicago's tallest residentials top out at 60-80 floors, and our tallest top out 40-60 floors.

Xemu

March 9th, 2007, 12:37 PM

I had heard this was a hotel project. Guess not...

Walentas ‘Independence’ plan back on track

By Christie Rizk
The Brooklyn Paper
A Cobble Hill apartment building project that was temporarily suspended last year is back in full swing. Developer David Walentas’s plan for a 37-rental-unit building on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street has been revamped and redesigned.
Community Board 6 rejected the Walentas’s original plan for an 81-foot building in 2005, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission refused to give the company permission to demolish a smaller building on Atlantic Avenue, next to the property, in 2006.
But it seems the kinks have been worked out.
“The project is definitely back up again,” said project manager Sam Charney, who didn’t want to go into detail before full design plans are revealed in two weeks.
What is known is that Walentas’s Two Trees Management wants to build a six-story building on the current parking lot behind the Sovereign Bank building, with stores at street level.
The LPC has approved the proposed building’s facade, as it is required to do for any new structure going up in a historic district.
The initial proposal called for tearing down a small annex to the 84-year-old Renaissance revival-style bank, converting the old bank building to housing and connecting the two buildings with a glass bridge. But the LPC insisted on the preserving the annex.
Two Trees is now looking for a major retailer to occupy the bank space. Construction is set to start late this summer, and the building is expected to be done in 2009.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

Xemu

March 12th, 2007, 09:33 PM

110 Livingston:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/418140130_110b3a4e0a.jpg
14 Townhouses:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/167/418139571_7d2e858257.jpg
The stalled Smith House:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/418140035_c56699b45d.jpg
A tower crane has gone in at Schermerhorn and Hoyt:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/418139218_4ca19b9a7a.jpg
The site of the future Walentes project in the article above:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/170/418139731_d02ec5a8b3.jpg

BrooklynRider

March 16th, 2007, 12:19 AM

The Smith House aka Luxe + Pop is of the same crap aesthetic as every other Boylemengreen project. The brick work going up on Atlantic is so bad I cringe walking past it. Truly a blemish on an up and coming area.

Derek2k3

March 17th, 2007, 01:26 AM

Thanks for the pictures Xemu.

antinimby

March 17th, 2007, 02:12 PM

Anyone else think that row of townhouses were a bow to the NIMBYs?

Why would you build an entire block of townhouses in DT Brooklyn of all places?

Anyway, in the fourth pic above, that site at Schermerhorn and Hoyt is where a 25-story rental is going up.

I believe the design firm is the Stephens B. Jacobs group, the same one's who did Boulevard East (http://www.sbjgroup.com/blvdeastcondo.html) nearby and of course, 325 Fifth in Manhattan.

Derek2k3

March 17th, 2007, 02:53 PM

well kinda...This block is really the dividing line between Dtwn Bk. & Boerum Hill. Before being knocked down for a parking lot, the entire block use to be lined with brownstones and they still line the southern side of State Street across from this development.

These townhouses are part of a master plan by Time Equities to develop the entire block. The southern side is to be developed with lowscale townhouses while the northern side will have mid-high rises. I like how the developers actually cared to build projects with some kind of architectural integrity. The block just east of this going through a similar type of development but looks horrible so far.

Schermerhorn House designed by Polshek is the next to rise on this block and is already under construction methinks.

BrooklynRider

March 17th, 2007, 03:43 PM

I agree with Derek. If you saw where they are built, it is a very apprpriate development, finishing out a classic rowhouse/brownstone block. Mid-rise development will be directly behind it. It is a rather nice design.

BrooklynRider

March 17th, 2007, 07:44 PM

FYI - Oro condo is up to 13 stories.

Xemu

March 17th, 2007, 11:01 PM

Thanks for that graphic derek. Schermerhorn House has been underway for some time now. They're still working on the foundation though. Here's a pic I took of the site the other day (14 townhouses in the background):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/424696391_cbd9aaacf6.jpg
I think I read that the foundation work at this site is especially complicated because of the huge Hoyt-Schermerhorn station below. If 14 Townhouses is anything to go on this building should turn out pretty nice. Fingers crossed...

fishermb

March 22nd, 2007, 09:28 PM

Can anyone comment on 125 Court? Looking to move into the neighborhood, seems like a nice building but haven't got a chance to see in person, or know about any problems with it-

Xemu

April 3rd, 2007, 08:12 PM

April 3, 2007
To Help Rikers, City Wants More Prisoners in Brooklyn

By TRYMAINE LEE
The city’s Department of Correction wants to double the number of prisoners it plans to house at a reopened Brooklyn House of Detention as part of its effort to ease pressure on the aging jail complex on Rikers Island officials said yesterday.
The plan to expand the Brooklyn jail, which has been closed since 2003, will take five years and should help the city eliminate beds for 4,000 prisoners at Rikers Island, Correction Department officials said. Most of those inmates would be transferred to the Brooklyn House of Detention, at Boerum Place and Atlantic Avenue, and to a planned jail in the Oak Point section of the Bronx, the officials said.
The Brooklyn jail, in its current state, has room for 749 inmates. The expansion would allow it to house 1,479.
The expansion would be built on empty land next to the House of Detention, which is in the heart of a booming residential and commercial area, and it would include jail space and a retail development, officials said. The existing building would not be altered.
Stephen Morello, a spokesman for the Correction Department, said the city would soon seek proposals from developers about how they might design the combined retail-jail space.
Some neighborhood groups are opposed to the plan to reopen and expand the jail.
“Before it was mothballed, the House of Detention was not a good neighbor,” said Robert Perris, district manager of Community Board No. 2 in Brooklyn.
“The bottom line for people in that corner of Boerum Hill is the impacts of both the Department of Correction and the visitors to the facility have caused in the past and might cause in the future,” he added.
Sandy Balboza, president of the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, said the reopened jail could hurt the rebounding neighborhood’s momentum. “People have invested recently, they developed around the jail site,” he said. “They’ve invested, and the jail hurts their investment, especially the expansion of the jail.”
A majority of the inmates expected to be sent to the Brooklyn jail would be from the borough, which is in keeping with a corrections trend in which inmates are kept closer to home, Mr. Morello said. Over all, he said, 33 percent of the city’s inmates come out of Brooklyn courts.
“Rikers Island is not a great place to have jails, for a number of reasons,” Mr. Morello said, citing its proximity to La Guardia Airport and the limited access from the mainland to the East River complex.
“It’s an impossible trip for family members, attorneys and aid groups who offer various services to the inmates,” Mr. Morello said. The Correction Department shuffles some 1,500 inmates a day from Rikers Island to court appearances throughout the city in an “inefficient manner that is not good for the justice system,” Mr. Morello said.
He added that 80 percent of the inmates on Rikers Island have not been convicted of any crime and that 50 percent of the prisoners are released within 10 days. The average stay in the jail is 45 days, Mr. Morello said, adding that it does not make sense to have inmates spending so much time traveling from Rikers Island to courts in each borough.
Mr. Perris said the plan to increase the inmate population at the House of Detention is not just about keeping prisoners closer to home.
“That is a very humane goal, but there are people in the community who question whether it’s just rhetorical leverage,” Mr. Perris said. He said the community board’s Transportation and Public Safety Committee and its Land Use Committee both voiced opposition to the expansion at the board’s February meeting.
“Court officers abused placard parking thought the area, and some visitors to the jail would urinate in people’s yards, hide weapons and contraband in flower pots,” Mr. Perris said. “So there is concern that if the jail reopens and doubles in size, these problems will reappear and be worse than they were before.”
Some residents and community groups also spoke out against the plan at a public hearing held by the full board.
Still, many of those who oppose the expansion say they will work with developers to include community goals, particularly in the plans for a retail development.
Mr. Balboza expressed skepticism about that part of the plan. “The retail, how do we know retail can work there?” Mr. Balboza asked, citing the no-parking and no-standing areas along that stretch of Atlantic Avenue and the lack of a viable loading dock.
“We have developers who have come to the neighborhoods around the jail and developed it, not because the jail was there but because people came in and saved these neighborhoods,” Mr. Balboza said.
Mr. Morello said the next step in the Brooklyn jail expansion plan is the Unified Land Use review process. He said the Correction Department also must still buy the 22-acre parcel in the Oak Point section of the Bronx to build a jail where the city plans to house 2,040 inmates.

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On a personal note, I live across the street from this place. I completely understand the need to reopen the prison. I was never here when it was in use, but I doubt it was as bad as the people above make it out to be. I am a little concerned about this line though: "The expansion would be built on empty land next to the House of Detention." The jail fills the whole block, so that could only be a parking lot across Boerum Pl. to the west and next to the new Y in the "Court House" rental. Would really kill what could have been a nice new city block.

antinimby

April 3rd, 2007, 08:19 PM

Not too long ago, I remember they were actually talking about turning the jail into condos.

I know the courts are right there, but isn't the land prices in this part of Downtown Brooklyn too valuable to be used for housing inmates?

Isn't there another out-of-the-way site somewhere else they can build a prison? Red Hook? (joking)

BrooklynRider

April 3rd, 2007, 11:41 PM

BrooklynRider

April 3rd, 2007, 11:44 PM

On a personal note, I live across the street from this place. I completely understand the need to reopen the prison. I was never here when it was in use, but I doubt it was as bad as the people above make it out to be. I am a little concerned about this line though: "The expansion would be built on empty land next to the House of Detention." The jail fills the whole block, so that could only be a parking lot across Boerum Pl. to the west and next to the new Y in the "Court House" rental. Would really kill what could have been a nice new city block.

There's the whole back yard to the prison on the State Street side that can be built on.

Xemu

April 4th, 2007, 12:46 PM

The Family Court building on Adams Street is now empty and sits right next to new court building at 330 Jay Street. They could sell of the old detention center (in a much more residential area) and use the funds to construct a new prison that depends less on razor wire and more on modern prison technologies. The city really screwed that community on this one.

That would really kill any chance of improving the Fulton Mall though. I've heard talk of retail going into the ground floor space in that building. I understand why the city would wand to reopen the House of D. I mean it's already a fully built Jail. What point would there be to tear it down and rebuild one up the street (farther from the criminal courts to boot).

There's the whole back yard to the prison on the State Street side that can be built on.

True, but when I read "empty land" I assumed they meant completely empty. There is a one story structure surrou