dime savings clock

Owner JPMorgan Chase has decided to put one of its prime bank branches up for sale: The historic Dime Savings Bank at 9 DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn. The 1908 Classical building looks like a Roman temple and sits next to Junior’s in a major development spot in Brooklyn that is currently seeing tons of high-rise construction.

The building is landmarked, so it will not be torn down or altered for development. No asking price has been named, but real estate insiders speculated it could fetch $100,000,000 or more, mostly for its valuable air rights, Crain’s reported.

Chase will move to 490 Fulton Street. The building would make a great event space, or possibly Apple might be interested in opening a store there, sources speculated to Crain’s. Massey Knakal is marketing the listing.

A planned tower at 340 Flatbush Avenue Extension could use the landmark’s 285,000 square feet of development rights to build an even bigger tower. The 100,000-square-feet bank has a gold dome on top; inside is a rotunda with giant marble columns, offices on the second floor, and an underground floor with vaults and a firing range. It was a Building of the Day in 2012.

Dime Savings Bank in DoBro Could Become $100 Million-Plus Buy [Crain’s]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. read the article – the building is landmarked. only thing to come out of this is that chase is leaving the premises. if you think chase leaving and some other company moving in spells the end of brooklyn, you have an odd affinity towards chase.

    progress is progress. things change. doesn’t mean things are ‘over’. some may even call it the beginning.

  2. totally fair points. the world is an interesting place right now – these things that us new york centric people think are so unique to us, are being replicated in most major cities around the world. bottom line is that humanity is wealthier than its ever been and aside from the typical screaming heads on tv yelling that the ceiling is falling, the world is generally more stable than at any point in modern human history. hence more people with more money and most people seem to want to live in cities. not really sure how to make things more affordable for lower/middle class folks. in a capitalistic society, you probably dont want to dictate too much to developers as to what they should build because humanity has shown time and again that govts dont pull back from having such power and then the snowball gets rolling.
    already seeing the ‘manhattan effect’ in brooklyn as galapagos in dumbo closed, due to costs. its just like union square and the villages all over again. its nice to keep artists in the area, but of course, then someone often has to help pay for them. and thats the rub.

  3. yes, i understand hyperbole. but i just dont get the complaints about things becoming different. that’s progress. some will like it, some won’t, but eventually it has to be accepted. developers always want to build and long time residents dont want change. so normally some medium is reached. new york has always been a fine example of evolution. the way i look at it is that for all the knocks that people want to inflict upon my city, the bottom line is that people want to live here and the city is growing and thriving. if it wasnt, this building boom wouldnt be happening. if you dont build vertical, there will be no space and the city will stop growing.
    as far as a bubble, im not sure how it could be one, since developers dont seem to be able to build fast enough. supply and demand. unless there a massive net migration out of nyc, people need to be housed.

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