Brooklyn faces tower power test
ONE
of Brooklyn’s most closely watched development proposals is set to begin its trial-by-ULURP — the city’s notoriously contentious public review process.
Ambitious, mixed-used 80 Flatbush, two blocks from Barclays Center, is scheduled to begin wending its way through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure on Feb. 26. It’s to include apartments, office, retail, cultural facilities and two badly needed new schools.
But 80 Flatbush has changed considerably from the one previously shown. The team behind it, Alloy Development and the New York City Educational Construction Fund, made significant tweaks after they held more than 100 meetings with neighborhood residents.
The most striking difference is that the shorter of two residential towers, 38 stories tall, has been redesigned with a narrower profile and a masonry façade rather than an all-glass curtain wall. The new, more contextual façade, shown on this page for the first time, also boasts setbacks meant to “create a dialogue”
with the landmark Williamsburgh Tower across Flatbush Avenue.
Also, the tower would have a lower-scale “street wall” on its State Street side than previously shown. To relieve congestion, the developers also want to do without parking spaces that are required under current zoning.
The proposal must undergo ULURP because it requires a zoning change — from the currently permitted 6.5 floor-to-area ratio to 18.
The complex on the neartriangular site bounded by Flatbush Avenue, Schermerhorn Street, Third Avenue and State Street, would fill a yawning gap on Flatbush between the DeKalb Avenue and Barclays Center hubs.
The once-nondescript corridor now flourishes with apartment towers, like 300 Ashland Place, and a new Whole Foods 365 market.
The under-utilized 80 Flatbush site is taken up mainly by a few obsolete low-rise retail buildings and the toosmall Khalil Gibran International Academy High School, a public school focusing on Arabic language and culture.
Some local residents have predictably grumbled about the towers’ heights. The taller would be 74 stories, but much narrower than the cliff-like structures that sprouted on Flatbush recently.
Most Brooklyn business and civic organizations enthusiastically support the plan. Mass-transit advocates prize development that minimizes the need for using cars, and 80 Flatbush is ideally situated to tap the unique confluence of subway lines and the nearby LIRR.
The complex would consist of three new and two 19th-century buildings to be put to new uses. It will have 900 apartments, of which 200 will be “affordable” under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program; 200,000 square feet of offices; 15,000 square feet of cultural space; and 40,000 square feet of stores.
But the civic pride of 80 Flatbush would be two new, public schools. A larger Khalil Gibran school will replace the one now scrunched into an archaic building that lacks bathrooms on some floors. The existing Gibran building, a 19th-century structure at 362 Schermerhorn, will be converted into a cultural venue. The new school will help alleviate the neighborhood’s severe shortage of classroom space.
Peg Breen, president of the independent New York Landmarks Conservancy, said in a statement, “This project shows that development and preservation can work together and that in- vesting in historic buildings makes economic sense.”
The first phase is to include the 38-story tower, both of the schools and offices and retail. Construction is to begin in 2019 and be completed around 2022. Alloy’s principals who are also architects, founder/CEO Jared Della
Valle and president AJ Pires, estimate development costs of $250 million for the commercial and residential components, plus $100 million for the schools.
The timetable for Phase II — including the taller tower, the cultural center and more offices and stores — hasn’t been set.
The project requires no city funding. The non-school portions will generate revenue that will pay for bonds floated to build the schools through the state-run Educational Construction Fund, which helps pay to develop new public schools. When CBRE global brokerage chief Stephen B. Siegel was tapped to be the guest of honor for a “Toast and Roast” benefit for the Gift of Life Marrow Registry at Guastavino’s last week, he knew he was in for some wicked barbs. He got more than he bargained for, but it was a bonanza for Gift of Life, which help saved Siegel’s wife, Wendy — who was stricken with leukemia a few years ago and helped organize blood drives for others. The Real Deal-organized event, hosted by publisher Amir Korangy and emceed by Cushman & Wakefield’s Bruce Mosler, raised $500,000.