Wanted: Master Planners for Brooklyn Tech Triangle

Downtown Brooklyn officials and property owners have been floating the idea of a Brooklyn Tech Triangle that would include Dumbo and the Brooklyn Navy Yard in addition to Downtown Brooklyn since April and this week took it up a notch with a call for a master plan that would connect the three zones physically in addition to marketingly (yes, we know that’s not a word). The call comes at a time when Dumbo office space is so popular that there’s none left while Metrotech, despite having recently attracted its first real start-up ever, is still a place that is shunned by the media elite; any easier sell, perhaps, are the prewar office buildings on Court Street. “When you’re a new start up with 20 people sitting at a big desk in a loft, that’s great,” the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s Tucker Reed told The Observer. “But when you’re more mature, you’ve got 200 people, more VC and corporate influence, you might need something a little different. Downtown Brooklyn offers both, and you’re still close to all your friends.” (Personally, we think they should call it the Brooklyn Tech Trapezoid and include the commercial blocks of Crown Heights where 1000 Dean is but what can you do!) The coalition has issued a RFP soliciting master plans from “multi-disciplinary consultant teams” that will consider placemaking, land use, transportation and infrastructure as well as real estate and economic policy. There will be an information session on July 20 and proposals are due to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership on August 10.
Image from NY1