Residential developers BFC, Brodsky Organization named for City Point Phase II

May 11, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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By Linda Collins

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Along with their announcement that a Century 21 department store will be the anchor retailer for City Point (please see story on page one), the developers, Acadia Realty Trust and Washington Square Partners, also named the developers for the new buildings in Phase II.

The second phase of the massive project at the former Albee Square is comprised of two apartment buildings to be constructed above a five-story retail podium, according to Tom Montvel-Cohen, a consultant and spokesperson for the developers. Both will be rental buildings.

BFC Partners to develop Tower 1

BFC Partners, a developer well-known to the Brooklyn real estate and development community, has been selected to develop Tower 1, which will contain approximately 250 mixed-income rental units in a 50-30-20 arrangement of market-rate-middle income-low income units.

“BFC is a very, very successful developer of affordable housing and very experienced in doing 50-30-20,” Montvel-Cohen told the Eagle. “They’ve done such projects a number of times, just not in Brooklyn.” City Pointâ€™s Phase I, a 45,000-square-foot retail building facing the Fulton Mall, is almost complete.

This will be BFC’s third large-scale project in Brooklyn. As the Eagle has reported, BFC has built Schafer Landing in Williamsburg and Toren in Downtown Brooklyn.

According to Montvel-Cohen, the approximately 19-story Tower 1 will be financed through the NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, a multi-billion dollar initiative to finance 165,000 units of affordable housing for New Yorkers by 2014. To date, the Plan has funded the creation or preservation of over 31,353 units in Brooklyn, and 2,275 units within Community Board 2.

Said HDC President Mark Jahr, “We are pleased to see this phased, mixed-use and mixed-income development take shape. As the new Downtown Brooklyn community continues to emerge we are proud to finance new multi-family developments that will remain affordable far into the future.”

Brodsky Org. to develop Tower 2

Brooklyn newcomer The Brodsky Organization, working with business partner Michael Field, has been selected to develop Tower 2, which will contain approximately 440 all-market-rate rental apartments.

“The Brodsky Organization is a developer of high-quality buildings — both rental and condominium — in Manhattan,” said Montvel-Cohen. “This will be their first in Brooklyn.”

According to its website, Brodsky owns and manages approximately 76 residential buildings in Manhattan.

Reached late yesterday, Dean Amro, a principal at Brodsky, told the Eagle the firm is very excited to be developing its first building in Brooklyn and it’s first rental building in nine years.

“This project will have a big impact on Downtown Brooklyn,” he said.

Amro said the firm had been looking in Brooklyn in different areas beginning four to five years ago, and came across this one.

“It came to fruition about a year ago and negotiations were begun,” he said. “We recently finalized our agreement.”

Amro confirmed that Tower 2 will contain 440 units — a mix of studios and one-and two-bedroom apartments — and will be approximately 35 stories tall. But that will depend on the approval of the city’s Public Design Commission. It will also contain a significant amount of amenity space, he said.

Tower designs in review

Because the City Point project is being developed on city-owned land, the designs of Towers 1 and 2, and of all buildings on the site, must be approved by the city’s Public Design Commission.

“The designs for Towers 1 and 2 are in review right now,” said Montvel-Cohen.

Cook + Fox Architects is working with both developers on the facade designs, he said.

The design concepts were approved by Community Board 2 and its Land Use Committee in April for recommendation to the commission.

Commitment to use local contractors

Paul Travis, project executive and president of Washington Square Partners, said in a published statement, “We thank the elected officials, community stakeholders and the Bloomberg administration, who have supported this project since the inception. I also want to emphasize our continuing commitment to work with contractors and tenants to ensure the maximum amount of local contracting and hiring.”

Additional retail could be in place by end of year

Montvel-Cohen also told the Eagle that he expects some additional announcements will be coming in the near future.

“We expect to be making announcements soon about some exciting new retail in Phase I to be in place by the end of 2012,” he said.