As you may recall from our announcement last month, we’ve embarked on not-so-modest real estate development project to convert the old Studebaker Service Station at 1000 Dean Street in Crown Heights into a office and studio space for the legions of folks in the surrounding neighborhoods who are pursuing their own creative projects. A year from now, we (meaning Brownstoner, our development partner BFC Partners, our financing partner Goldman Sachs and the two groups responsible for allocating New Market Tax Credits to the deal–Waveland and United Fund Advisors) hope the four-story, 160,000-square-foot complex is swarming with a mix of technologists, artists, writers, jewelers, small food producers, etc. That seems like a long way off right now, as the more immediate matter at hand is turning what is essentially an old garage, albeit a mighty sturdy one, into a high-tech hive that is designed to foster interaction and creativity. To that end, BFC, which has been building large buildings across the city for almost three decades, has begun work on the facade already. Meanwhile, we are all working closely with Selldorf Architects to finish up the overall design for the building, which will include a new core with two new passenger elevators as well as new bathrooms, mechanicals and all the other fun stuff that will make this a functioning and hopefully thriving place to work. Over the next few months we will keep you updated with the development process as well as give you a taste of some of the building’s history. We’ll also have the website for the project live soon, but in the meantime feel free to fill out the leasing survey to get your name on the list for when space becomes available in the first half of next year. To get started, we’ve got an action photo of some of the facade repair that’s already under way.


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