Brooklyn Space January 10, 2024
The outside of Arrow Linen Supply.
Screenshot from Google Maps.
Screenshot from Google Maps.
Pro-Housing Movement Turning the Tide in Brooklyn
The fight for housing is getting more interesting. Not the one in Albany: That doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Rather, Brooklyn is where the action is. Political and real estate observers are focused on the Arrow Linen project in Windsor Terrace, where City Council member Shahana Hanif has an opportunity to make amends for caving in to NIMBYs in a Park Slope/Gowanus project last year.
Arrow Linen is proposing to move its laundry operation elsewhere and build two 13-story apartment buildings in its place. But it needs new zoning to do that. In the past, this would have played out predictably, with vocal locals making hysterical predictions about “towers,” shadows, traffic, overcrowded schools and sewage backups, followed by the local Council member negotiating a roughly 40 percent reduction in project size. The project would get built and life — and the housing crisis — would go on pretty much as before. Not this time, it seems.
The pro-housing movement has grown, and many voices are demanding a new script. Some are asking on social media why the project should be shrunk at all. The latest to chime in was state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who is understandably frustrated that wealthy, white neighborhoods typically whittle down or defeat proposed developments, putting more pressure on communities of color to absorb housing demand. He knows who wins bidding wars for homes.
QUICK LINKS
Skip scrolling, find the biggest stories here:
Around Kings County
The Brook Begins Ascent At 589 Fulton Street In Downtown Brooklyn
The Brook, a 575-foot-tall residential skyscraper at 589 Fulton Street. Designed by Beyer Blinder Belle and developed by Witkoff Group and Apollo Global Management, the 51-story structure will span 557,973 square feet and yield 591 rental units with an average scope of 827 square feet, with 30 percent of the inventory reserved for affordable housing, as well as 68,693 square feet of retail space, a cellar level, and two floors of recreational and sports amenities. Bonetti Kozerski is the interior designer and Suffolk Construction is the general contractor for the project.
New Renderings Released For 625 Fulton Street In Downtown Brooklyn
New renderings have been released for 625 Fulton Street, a 35-story mixed-use skyscraper that currently stands topped out in Downtown Brooklyn. Designed by Fischer Rasmussen Whitefield Architects and developed by Rabsky Group with $450 million in construction financing from Madison Realty Capital, the 500-foot-tall structure will yield 1,098 rental units, 26,000 square feet of retail space on the lower levels, and an on-site parking garage for 250 vehicles. Galaxy Developers is the general contractor for the property, which is alternately addressed as 485 Hudson Avenue and bound by the 34-story 80 DeKalb Avenue to the north, Fulton Street to the south, Rockwell Place to the east, and Hudson Avenue to the west.
Top 10 Brooklyn Real Estate Listings: A Park Slope Condo, an East Flatbush Row House
Midwood and Park Slope were popular again this week. The least expensive property on the list is a Park Slope co-op at $750,000 and the most expensive is a Fort Greene wood-frame house at $2.4 million.
Renderings Revealed For The Shoreline At 2230 Cropsey Avenue In Bath Beach
New renderings have been unveiled for The Shoreline, a 31-story residential building at 2230 Cropsey Avenue in Bath Beach. Developed by Cropsey Partners LLC and designed by Hill West Architects with interiors by Whitehall Interiors, the waterfront tower is nearing completion and will yield 248 market-rate residences with Corcoran New Development handling marketing and leasing. Move-ins are scheduled to begin in January 2024.
16 Dupont Street Tops Out Over Greenpoint
Construction has topped out on 16 Dupont Street, a 40-story residential tower in Greenpoint’s 22-acre Greenpoint Landing master plan. Designed by GKV Architects and developed by Rockefeller Group and Park Tower Group, the 400-foot-tall structure will span 365,651 square feet and yield 381 rental units, with 115 reserved for affordable housing, as well as 2,548 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 138 enclosed parking spaces. Monadnock Construction is the general contractor for the property, which is located at the intersection of Dupont, West, and Commercial Streets.
Housing Lottery Launches for 689 Franklin Avenue In Crown Heights
The affordable housing lottery has launched for 689 Franklin Avenue, a four-story mixed-use building in Crown Heights. Designed by L&C Associates and developed by David Manesh of Two Lot LLC, the structure yields eight residences. Available on NYC Housing Connect are three units for residents at 130 percent of the area median income (AMI), ranging in eligible income from $80,572 to $198,250.
Plaza Near Brooklyn Bridge to Become Sports and Rec Space
Paddle ball and a dog run might be coming to the Brooklyn Bridge soon. The city plans to reopen two football fields’ worth of space at the Brooklyn Bridge in Downtown Brooklyn to the public for the first time in 15 years, and turn the former storage area and one-time art-space into a sports and recreation facility. The Parks Department is looking for contractors to operate an outdoor activity center for up to six years on the nearly 100,000-square-foot, two lot Anchorage Plaza, which sandwiches the bridge at Old Fulton Street and Washington Street (including a connector beneath the bridge ramp colloquially called Ash Alley), according to a request for proposals [PDF] the agency released this week.
Dwight Mortgage Trust Lends $41M on New Downtown Brooklyn Resi Tower
Developer Bruklyn Builders has secured $41.2M in bridge financing for its recently completed 13-story Amnia residential building located at 27-131 Concord Street. Dwight Mortgage Trust, the affiliate real estate investment trust of Dwight Capital, provided the bridge loan for the sponsor’s 13-story Amnia building completed in November 2023. Loan proceeds were used to refinance existing construction debt and obtain additional capital for the property.
Housing Solutions From
Across The Globe
Reclaiming the Missing
Middle Ground: How Planners
Got NIMBYs to Yes
During a contentious zoning debate, planners in Arlington, Virginia, used data and meaningful engagement to help the community expand housing choices. Located inside the Beltway adjacent to the nation’s capital, Arlington County, Virginia, has cultivated a distinct reputation for high densities of federal workers, doctorates, and decorum. The civic success of the region, which was picked in 2018 to be Amazon’s second headquarters, owes much to what many in the wealthy suburb call the Arlington Way of rational, dispassionate government. One former official joked, due to the laboriousness of the exercise, the county’s real slogan should be “Process. It’s our most important product.”
But that veneer of unity was put to the test during a multiyear debate over upzoning and missing middle housing, specifically allowing multiunit structures like low-rise apartments, duplexes, or triplexes in the vast swaths of the county’s residential land zoned only for single-family homes. Like many communities in the region and across the country, Arlington has become a victim of its own economic success in terms of housing shortages and affordability — the average home sale price was more than $800,000 in 2022 and median two-bedroom rent is $2,600 as of November 2023. That has helped further the divide between renters and homeowners, especially NIMBYs (Not in My Backyard).
Photo: Julia Nikhinson/AP
Perspectives From Brooklyn
And Beyond
► How to Make Room for One Million New Yorkers
New York City doesn’t have enough homes. The average New Yorker now spends 34 percent of pre-tax income on rent, up from just 20 percent in 1965. There are many reasons homes in the city are so expensive, but at the root of it all, even after the pandemic, is supply and demand: Insufficient housing in our desirable city means more competition — and therefore sky-high prices — for the few new homes that trickle onto the market. Read more.
► 10 Things You Should Know About Biden’s Office to Residential Conversion Plan
The Biden Administration has recently unveiled an ambitious plan aimed at addressing the housing shortage in the United States. The initiative focuses on converting underutilized office spaces into residential units. This innovative approach is set to reshape urban landscapes and tackle the affordable housing crisis. Here are ten key points you should know about this groundbreaking plan.
► 2023’s Largest Office Lease: Paul Weiss Takes 765K SF at 1345 Avenue of the Americas
Law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has signed New York City’s — and the country’s — largest office lease of 2023. The firm agreed to a 20-year deal for 765,000 square feet at the recently repositioned 1345 Avenue of the Americas, according to landlord Fisher Brothers. Known widely simply as Paul Weiss, the law firm will occupy 18 floors in the building between West 54th and West 55th streets. Asking rents in the building range between the high $80s per square foot on the lower floors to $135 near the top of the tower, according to a spokesperson for the landlord. Read more.
► Hochul Amends Rent Bill, Sparing Landlords from “Disaster”
Newly unveiled changes are reprieve for rent-stabilized owners. Landlords called it a disaster. Tenant advocates hailed it as a victory. But it turns out that a bill signed by the governor last month actually falls somewhere in between. The bill that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed broadens the definition of fraud in rent overcharge cases, but chapter amendments released Friday show she insisted the legislature eliminate some of the provisions most feared by landlords. Read more.
► Our Radical, Practical NYCHA Makeover for Curbed
Peterson Rich Office’s architects propose balconies, energy efficiency, and mixed-income low-rises. The acronym for New York City Housing Authority, the agency that manages public housing, sounds like a cross between a curse and a sigh. In the public imagination, NYCHA is practically a synonym for a situation without a solution: ballooning costs, rickety revenue, public contempt, bleak conditions for residents, and the indignity of a federal monitor. Yet that’s wrong. Recent years have, somewhat under the radar, brought hope and a fresh set of tools. Funding models have evolved, money for renovations has started to flow, and thousands of apartments have already been reconditioned. Even in the midst of a barrage of civic crises, the future of public housing in New York looks sunnier than it has in decades. Most important, residents are slowly internalizing the idea that not all change is bad — even if it involves private developers. Read more.
► Japanese Investors Return to Overseas Real Estate With Lessons Learned From the 1990s
This time it isn’t about flaunting trophy purchases. Big Japanese investors stumbled disastrously into the U.S. commercial real-estate market in the late 1980s, when they bought high-profile properties like New York’s Rockefeller Center not long before the market fell hard. Now some Japanese institutional investors and real-estate companies are back—but this time it isn’t about flaunting trophy purchases. It is about diversifying portfolios for the long term and getting good bargains while the market is slumping. Japanese investors in 2023 put $3.7 billion into commercial real estate in the Americas as of Dec. 11, the largest volume since 2016, according to data provider MSCI Real Assets. Read more.
► Industrial Site to Become Workforce Housing in Los Angeles
JPMorgan Chase is making a new move by financing an affordable housing community that’s being built without traditional subsidies. A former industrial storage facility will be transformed into a 376-unit housing community north of downtown Los Angeles. Thrive Living secured entitlements for the site last year and recently began construction of a contemporary six-story mixed-use apartment complex that will help meet the need for more affordable and workforce housing in the city. Read more.
Brooklyn Space for Living, Working & Investing is produced by Eagle Urban Media. Contact at [email protected]
Copyright (C) 2023 by Eagle Urban Media. All rights reserved.
Leave a Comment
Related Articles
Good Food March 8, 2024
Brooklyn Space March 6, 2024
Good Food March 1, 2024
Leave a Comment
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.