Based on public documents and big blue fence that’s started to go up, The Clarett Group (developer of the Forte and an advertiser on Brownstoner) is gearing up to build a 51-story, 491-unit, 456,000-square-foot residential tower t 107-111 Lawrence Street in Downtown Brooklyn; the architect is Gerner Kronick & Valcarcel. The first permit application was rejected but at the end of June, but the developer purchased more air rights in July so don’t be surprised to see anothing application soon.

The back story that a reader helped us piece together is pretty interesting. Please keep in mind when you’re reading that this is a best-guess scenario none of which has been confirmed by Clarett. The company is making no comment at this time.

New York State first entered a deal to sell 107 Lawrence Street at the end of February 2006 to Samuel Cahan of Monroe, N.Y. who’d entered the highest sealed bid of $20.9 million. Then, in March 2006, the site was listed on Craigslist by Gabel Property Group for about $30 million. At the very beginning of 2007, the property shows up on ACRIS as being sold directly by the New York State to Lawrence Street Partners, a Clarett Group entity, for the same $20.9 million as Cahan’s winning bid.

Four months later Clarett bought 57,354 square feet of air rights from Kechek Realty, the owner of the site immediately to the South, for $3,441,240, or about $60 per square foot. Then on June 15, Clarett submitted a preliminary permit application for the residential tower; DOB rejected the application two weeks later.

Within a week or so Clarett bought another 156,485 square feet of air rights from Verizon which, apparently, owns the building to the East of the site, on Bridge Street opposite Bell-Tel. There’s nothing on ACRIS, but a reverse calculation from the real property transfer tax paid (performed by a reader who knows more about this stuff than we do) suggests a price in the range of $8 million to $9 million or $55 per square foot.

So, assuming the air rights purchases plus the allowable FAR of the original site equate to the proposed buildable area, it looks like Clarett paid, overall, $32.9 million for 456,000 buildable square feet, which comes out to about $72 per square foot. Pretty cheap in this market, no?
GMAP P*Shark DOB