Although the planned development at 360 Smith Street has been getting Carroll Gardeners worked up into a lather for a while now, some neighborhood watchdogs are increasingly concerned about the fate of 340 Court Street, a property that includes the former International Longshoreman’s Association building. According to community members who spoke at last week’s town hall meeting, the Clarett Group recently bought the site for $24 million, and the firm could build up to 21 stories on the parcels it’s acquired. While Clarett is no stranger to big Brooklyn builds—the company is developing the 28-story Forté near BAM (an ad for which helps keeps the servers on around here) and appears to have plans in the works to put up a 51-story residential tower on Lawrence Street—the developer told Assemblywoman Joan Millman that it hasn’t even hired an architect for 340 Court, and that it doesn’t intend to construct a building that’s dramatically out of context with surrounding buildings. That may be a wise business move given the community’s ever-increasing sensitivity to the height of new developments: A couple folks at least week’s meeting were already talking about organizing opposition towards Clarett’s future project sight-unseen. More on this one surely to come.
Calls for Reining in Development at CG Meeting [Brownstoner] GMAP
360 Smith: Update and Review of New Plans [Brownstoner]