New Big House Retail Idea Making the Rounds
The city is once again keen on the notion of adding retail to the ground floor of the Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue. Daily Intelligencer reported yesterday that city commissioners are shopping around a new proposal that will result in a vibrant shopping arcade for the building when it reopens at double its…
The city is once again keen on the notion of adding retail to the ground floor of the Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue. Daily Intelligencer reported yesterday that city commissioners are shopping around a new proposal that will result in a vibrant shopping arcade for the building when it reopens at double its old capacity in 2012. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill produced the rendering above as an example of what the space could look like, with Trader Joe’s as an imaginary anchor tenant. The revamped vision for the jail comes about a month after the Observer reported that the city had given up on its plans to allow for retail and condos in the property because of a lack of developer interest; a scheme to put a middle school in the jail also crashed and burned. Sandy Barboza, head of the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, told Daily Intel that the city was merely trying to soften the blow of the jail expansion. It is not worth retail to have the jail double in size, said Barboza.
Jail Reopening and Expansion Proposed [Daily Intel]
Plans for Ground-Floor Retail at Brooklyn House of Detention [NY Daily News]
Try, Try Again: Brooklyn’s Jail with Retail is Back [Curbed]
Brooklyn House of Detention Plans Falter [Brownstoner] GMAP
Rendering from Daily Intel.
Anyone hwho bought at 53 thinking the HOD was closed for good is an idiot. And the HOD has not hurt prices of units at 53 or other coops nearby (unless you think a 25%+ increase in 3 years is not acceptable). And it did not hurt prices (before 53 was there) in the last real estate run-up.
The city always said it would transfer people from Rikers to the HOD when Rikers is remodeled. Crime was down — they had space. They did the prudent thing by moving people to another facility so they could update the HOD while the resident population was low.
Anyone who bought in downtown expecting all the governement buidlings, inc. the HOD, to disappear is crazy. The reason Downtown Brooklyn prices were less than in other areas was already factored in. That why the 2 beds at 53 were only $599K when it was built.
11:12, the one response–which came from a developer of other property in the area, I believe–called for tearing down the jail and redeveloping the property. Since the request for expressions of interest, it was an RFEI not an RFP, was for private development that would be part of an expansion of the jail, the submission was deemed “non-responsive.”
Did anyone see the submissions to the RFP? What did developers propose?
4:14 – glad you got out – but if you were lead to believe that the jail was unlikely to reopen then you got “sold” – b/c the city ALWAYS said they intended to reopen the jail.
4:14
Well in fairness, the criminals were there before you. And a civilized society needs jails. The judges are not going to go to the prisoners, so the prisoners need to be brought to the judges who are in the big old and new courthouses Downtown. Bad call on your part thinking that they were going to close the facility.
I bought an apartment at 53 Boerum, across the street from this facility, when that condo was first for sale. At that time the jail was closed and unlikely to reopen. Once it became clear something was going to happen here I decided to sell the apartment. I just didn’t believe in the area any longer. This was a while ago – a bit before the real estate market started to get ‘cooler’. I sold the place for roughly breakeven considering broker and other fees. It’s a real shame they cannot come up with another solution – the city is basically destroying real estate value of tax paying, investing citizens in favor or convenience for criminals. Not appealing.
if they want to double the size it would be cheaper and faster to tear it down and start over. Plus they could build a modern facility then rather than a mongrel half new/half old/all fugly thing.
It is not being used for arraignments – arraignments are done next door at Brooklyn Criminal Court and the defendant’s are held in the same building pre-arraignment.
The $50million rehab was done (mainly while the facility was OPEN) from 1995-2003 – the facility was closed in 2002. And it is not shuttered (i.e. no one in there) it is still guarded and maintained by corrections and can be opened in weeks if necessary. The city doesnt need it now but PROJECT a use in the future (with the expansion it is not expected to open till 2012 earliest).
This jail is a WPA project for the (private) contractors who do the work –
3:40, it was mothballed. There is a court order to close some buildings on Rikers. The ‘prison ship’ in the Bronx needs to go into dry-dock for repairs. Now it’s planned to be re-opened and expanded. I was in the House of D’ not too long ago. It looked basically ready for occupancy.
If I was Martin Horn and I read the comments above, I’d say, “fuck all of ’em; no more meetings; no more presentations; prepare the construction drawings.” But Horn is a much nicer person than me. It’s just the truth.