Brooklyn Space February 28, 2024

February 28, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

The 100-year-old Brooklyn Paramount Theatre will reopen once again as a music venue next month following a major restoration. The image shows the theatre in 1948.
Photo courtesy of Long Island University.

Brooklyn’s Historic Paramount Theatre to Reopen in March

The historic theater’s grand opening season officially kicks off on March 27, with tickets now on sale for more than 45 shows featuring performers like Busta Rhymes and Norah Jones. The renovation preserved the opulent Baroque features throughout the space and included modern upgrades: a new stage, a state-of-the-art backstage facility, seven bars, and an exclusive VIP lounge. Originally opened in 1928, the Brooklyn Paramount served as both a movie theater and music venue until it was taken over in 1962 by Long Island University (LIU), which converted the music hall into a gym and removed its stage. The university retained the theater’s stunning gilded latticework ceiling and converted the upstairs office into an academic space.

The building was originally designed by Chicago-based architectural firm Rapp and Rapp, who were leading architects for early 20th-century movie palaces, having designed over 400 such projects around the country for Paramount, the Orpheum, Loew’s, and Warner. When Rapp and Rapp designed the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, Downtown Brooklyn was the borough’s bustling theatre district. There were an estimated 25,000 theatre seats within a few short blocks of the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and DeKalb Avenue, where the Paramount was located. The theatre was constructed in buff-colored brick and combined an 11-story office tower at the corner with an adjacent auditorium. Two huge Paramount Theatre signs hung on the office tower roof, and a large wraparound marquee welcomed guests into the lobby that had huge chandeliers and gilded fountains filled with goldfish.

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Around Kings County

Deeply Affordable Housing Lottery Opens for Seniors on Rheingold Brewery Site in Bushwick

An affordable housing lottery has launched for 65 truly affordable apartments for seniors in an under-construction development at 15 Monteith Street in Bushwick, on a section of the sprawling former Rheingold Brewery site. The apartments are aimed at seniors making zero to 50% of Area Median Income. Eligible incomes top out at $49,450 for one person, $56,500 for two, and $63,550 for a family of three. Developed by longtime neighborhood organization Los Sures and Churches United for Fair Housing, Rheingold Senior Residences is designed to be environmentally friendly, with low utility costs, and promote socializing.

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The Scramble to Cleanup the Gowanus Canal, as Housing Boom Looms

Gowanus, a mostly industrial neighborhood surrounded by some of the priciest real estate in Brooklyn, is in the midst of a transformation. The Brooklyn neighborhood is dealing with legacy industrial contamination, ongoing sewage spills, and frequent flooding — all made worse by climate change. Multiple layers of government are cleaning up pollution in and around the canal as developers prepare to build thousands of apartments.

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Exterior Work Progresses Apace at Rabsky Group’s 240 Willoughby Street

The $95 million, 30-story residential tower, when completed, will offer 300 rental units (147 designated as affordable). The pre-existing 21-story tower adjacent to the new tower is also under renovation, and completion is scheduled for next winter.

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The Design Secrets of NYC’s Brooklyn Bridge Park

Completed in 2021, Brooklyn Bridge Park has settled in as both an essential escape from city life and an urban destination, offering everything from playgrounds and athletic fields to a pastoral park. The 1.3-mile long park along New York City’s East River draws an estimated 5 million people annually — well above early expectations. But its success didn’t come without challenges, including a superstorm event and a global pandemic. A new book from MVVA, the firm behind the new park, looks back at the planning, design and construction process.

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MaryAnne Gilmartin on the Future of NYC, Placemaking, and Her Latest Big Project

This episode of the Thesis Driven Leader Series features MaryAnne Gilmartin, one of the preeminent real estate developers in Brooklyn of this generation. She has built incredible projects, including the New York Times Building, Barclays Center, Atlantic Yards and more. And she’s now expanding beyond New York City to develop the Baltimore Peninsula — a 177-acre project that includes 14 million square feet of new development and 40 acres of publicly accessible open space.

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Minneapolis was ahead of the pack as it made a series of changes to its zoning rules in recent years.<br>Photo by Eastman Childs via Unsplash — Minneapolis was ahead of the pack as it made a series of changes to its zoning rules in recent years.
Photo by Eastman Childs via Unsplash

The Hottest Trend in U.S. Cities? Changing Zoning Rules to Allow More Housing

America is facing a housing crisis. The U.S. is short millions of housing units. Half of renters are paying more than a third of their salary in housing costs, and for those looking to buy, a scant few homes on the market are affordable for a typical household. To ramp up supply, cities are taking a fresh look at their zoning rules that spell out what can be built where and what can’t. And many are finding that their old rules are too rigid, making it too hard and too expensive to build many new homes. So these cities, as well as some states, are undertaking a process called zoning reform. They’re crafting new rules that do things like allow multifamily homes in more neighborhoods, encourage more density near transit and streamline permitting processes for those trying to build.

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Perspectives

➤ Welcome to St. John’s Terminal, Google’s New Home in New York City

On Monday, Feb. 26, Google welcomed thousands of employees to their newest office in New York: St. John’s Terminal. The new structure was built on top of the original rail terminal from the 1930s that served as the end point for what’s now the High Line. Over 14,000 Googlers now call New York home, which is up from 7,000 employees in 2018 when they first announced our involvement with the Terminal project. “We’ve not only kept our pledge to double our New York workforce over the decade that followed that announcement, but we’ve done it in half the time. It’s a testament to New York’s vibrancy, diverse talent pool and world-class institutions that keep us rooted here.” Read more.

➤ NYCHA Has 5,000 Empty Apartments After Bureaucratic Bungle, Monitor Finds

That’s up from just 460 empty units two years ago, a spike largely driven by a failed effort to centralize and speed up turning over vacancies. Over the last year, the number of vacant public housing apartments in New York City has risen by nearly 50% — with just under 5,000 units sitting empty as of January, while more than 240,000 applicants languish on the New York City Housing Authority waiting list. Read more.

➤ Op-ed: 2024 and the Office Market’s Comeback

No matter how dire the headline or pessimistic the pundit, I’ve spent the past three years telling anyone who would listen that the in-person office has a bright future. Now, New York’s office market has entered 2024 with more predictability and stronger fundamentals than at any time since the pandemic, backed by new data showing leasing momentum. The flight-to-quality office trend is still going strong. Based on the number of 2023 lease transactions at $100 per square foot or more, CBRE found that the high-end of the market is “impervious to the woes” that the lower tier is facing. Read more.

➤ Looking for an ‘Affordable’ 2-Bed Apartment for a Family? The odds are against you.

Mayor Eric Adams has often touted the record number of subsidized housing units New York City is building for low- and middle-income renters as part of his strategy for keeping families in the five boroughs. “We have a hemorrhaging of Black and brown families leaving New York because it’s no longer affordable,” Adams said at a June 2022 event announcing his housing plan. “We’ve decimated the middle class, and we need to refocus our attention on stabilizing these families.” Read more.

➤ Supreme Court Rejects Last Two Rent Law Challenges

For landlords challenging New York’s rent law, the second and third times were not the charm. Last week, the Supreme Court rejected two more petitions to review the state’s rent stabilization law, a decision that comes more than four months after the court declined to consider a challenge brought by the Rent Stabilization Association and Community Housing Improvement Program. This decision, however, may leave the door open for a future case. Read more.

➤ Investors Sue New York Community Bank after Dividend Cut, Stock Plunge

Several cases allege that the major real estate lender concealed problems with loans. On the last day of January, New York Community Bank announced a dividend cut that sent its stock price plummeting and sparked new fears of commercial real estate distress. Cue the lawsuits. New York Community Bank CEO Thomas Cangemi and CFO John Pinto face two suits from disgruntled stockholders alleging securities violations. Both seek class-action status. Read more.

➤ Systemic Risk Concerns Grow as Real Estate Woes Cause Turmoil

US CRE and Chinese real estate are the most likely sources of the credit event. The latest inflation figures have lowered the likelihood of rate cuts. Fears of a systemic credit event are growing among fund managers as alarms sound in property markets around the world. About one in six of those polled considers such a crunch to be the biggest tail risk. Read more.

➤ Top Fed Officials Bolster Case for Patient Stance on Rate Cuts

Vice Chair Jefferson says too much easing could stall progress. Governor Cook says she wants more evidence of disinflation. Read more.