« Brig Site: A Peek at What's on the Drawing Board Ikea, a Big-Box Trailblazer in the ’Hook? »
March 7, 2008
Glassy New Retail-Condo in the Works Downtown
The plan to bring a 600,000-square-foot development to Fulton Street is apparently moving forward. In recent weeks, developer United American Land has filed air rights agreements in city records for the block bounded by Fulton, Duffield, Willoughby and Bridge streets. The firm, headed by Al Laboz, co-chairman of the Fulton Mall Improvement Association, intends to attract a national retailer to the building, have luxury condos on top floors, and preserve the landmark 505 Fulton Street as part of the project. The above rendering for the property appears on United American's website, but the company's principals would not comment on the development. UA's plan has stirred controversy because United American has been giving longtime businesses the boot in order to make way for the project. GMAP
Rendering from United American Land's website.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/4114
Comments
why are all these new projects made out of glass? damn i missed the memo. Can someone bring me up to speed?
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 10:05 AM
Yeah ok - the person who didnt get the memo was Laboz - its 2008 dude - no one is financing the development of luxury condominiums on the FULTON MALL in 2008.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 10:14 AM
No bullshit. I'm not a troll.
I would pick Fulton Mall over -many- areas in Brooklyn.
I'm in the market. If the price is right, I am THERE.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 10:22 AM
505 Fulton has gorgeous details. It will be great to see it cleaned up. Pretty sad to see plywood in several windows.
Posted by: BoerumHill at March 7, 2008 10:34 AM
i love how idiots think that there will be NO development in 2008 and beyond.
are you for real, 10:14??
even during the worst of the housing market in the 80's tons of shit was still built.
you think it all comes to a halt?
brooklyn is still extremely desirable and ripe for building.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 10:34 AM
What you don't see in this rendering is the huge tower that will rise on the Willoughby side of this site.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 10:37 AM
I'm all in favor of residential over retail on the Fulton Mall, but question siting the inaugural project mid-way between Adams Street and Albee Square. Talk about 'pioneering' a neighborhood....
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 11:25 AM
Just name the new development "Martin's" as an ode to the store that occupied the site of the historic building until the late 1970's. It was Brooklyn's version of B. Altman's. High end shopping....on Fulton Street....
Hopefully a store that would appeal to both the office workers in MetroTech and the Brooklyn residents who travel to downtown Brooklyn by the bus and subway.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 11:26 AM
Cellphone store.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 11:57 AM
I'd like to see a bank!!!!
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 12:43 PM
10:14 here - of course there will be development in 2008 - but I am sorry but I don't think that 2008 is the year that luxury condos and high end retail comes smack in the middle of the Fulton Mall.
This is a risky development (never been done before) under the best of circumstances, I seriously doubt that anyone is going to finance this (on pure speculation) when there is essentially no housing on the Mall, a ton of projects are going up along Flatbush (and sales have slowed) and financing is apparently drying up in more 'proven' spots like on Myrtle.
Maybe after the Albee Sq Development sells out and after some of the existing buildings along the mall are converted into residences and a market/price can be established, then you got a shot. Today- I seriously doubt it.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 1:06 PM
I agree that downtown Brooklyn will continue to improve. Sorry to all the folks who just bought at the nearby Belltel. Great historic, refurbished building but weird unit layouts and middle of the road finish and fixtures.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 1:10 PM
LOVEly.
Posted by: BrooklynLove at March 7, 2008 1:14 PM
How about a 150,000 sq ft Olive Garden.
Or a maybe a shoe store?
That's will fit right in with this huge waste of glass.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 1:54 PM
Perfect example of why FAR regs should be negotiable to meet the height of neighboring (much older) buildings. I edited the image in Photoshop to show the difference two more floors would make:
Copy + Paste
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q286/urbsinhorto/united-american-fulton_new.jpg
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 2:08 PM
2:08: the issue here isn't FAR. This block is zoned for 10+ FAR. They certainly could have built higher on that corner to block out the side of the old building, but for some reason chose not to. Maybe they wanted that FAR for the tower on the other side of that site.
Posted by: zinka at March 7, 2008 2:10 PM
The city point building will host a target and several other big name stores. The amount of space is finite and will spill out onto the fulton mall. When this starts hapening the rent on fulton will rise higher then feasible, all those sneaker stores will split.
I'd expect a Bed Bath and Beyond type of store in the 505 space.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 2:18 PM
Fulton Mall is really fascinating. A completely African-American shopping "experience" in the middle of about eight communities where houses, even decrepit houses, sell for over a million dollars. I think it is unique. The uber-rich white new arrivals do not want to upset the apple cart so they prefer to shop on Madison Avenue or Soho. It is TOO WEIRD. it is like having a totally Black downtown in Darien or Tuxedo Park. I think future city planners will study the oddity of Fulton Mall for decades. It has it all: money, race, class, political correctness, snobbishness, apartheid, elitism, racial condensension.
And it's all here! in little old brownstone brooklyn.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 9:46 PM
9:46: It's not so odd. Brooklyn is mostly black and brown, and all subways converge on downtown. Fulton Mall reflects its borough's people, whoever "Brownstoners" -- a narrow slice of the population -- may be.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 10:30 PM
9:46, Fulton Mall does not reflect the borough's demographics. it is almost entirely a lower-class African American shopping street. There are lots and lots of white people in brooklyn and there are lots and lots of affluent people of every race in brooklyn. those groups are not represented on fulton street. wake up and see the world as it really is for once.
Posted by: guest at March 8, 2008 9:02 PM
9:46 is odd and weird period
Posted by: guest at March 8, 2008 9:41 PM
I used to shop for my kids at the stores in the mall and Ihave always shopped at Macy's (especially when it was A&S). And I am a 'brownstoner'. Why do you always try to make these things about race. Its just about convenience and the kind of stores you want to shop at for the things you need. I have never forgiven Macy's for closing the entrance on the subway level. It made it so easy to stop at the store on my way home from work. But not any more - and this is one of the reasons I don't shop there much now
Posted by: guest at March 8, 2008 10:20 PM
Sure, there are hundreds of thousands of whites in Brooklyn -- but it's a borough of more than two million.
41% in 2000 were white. 39% black. 20% Latino and 10% "other". In other words, a majority non-white place -- as is New York City as a whole. Plus, on the other side of Flatbush Avenue and stretching along Fulton Street are neighborhoods that are 75% African-American.
Now, white Brooklynites could shop on Fulton Street, but many of them live not in Brownstone Brooklyn but in an arc on the borough's extremities, where they can shop at Kings Plaza that replaced Fulton Street in the 1960-70's as a retail destination or in outlying shopping malls.
These folks aren't "brownstoners" or "hipsters" -- as nice as these may be -- but more like the white ethnic families you find in Staten Island. And they don't shop at Fulton Mall.
As for affluence, there are plenty of affluent people in Brooklyn, but the median income in 2005 was 39,000, below the national median (around 45,000), and below New York's (49,000). Probably many of the people characterized above as "lower class" are somewhere around the median.
It'll be interesting to see how developers combine markets on Fulton. 125th Street is being re-engineered, and appears to be doing pretty well with new and old-timers. Maybe the same will happen in Brooklyn. Only time will tell.
Posted by: guest at March 9, 2008 12:01 AM
If they needed to finance the purchase as well as the construction there would not be financing available. However, being that they own the land for quite a while and have a very low mortgage on the piece, financing is quite possible, or dare I say probable.
Posted by: guest at March 9, 2008 10:05 PM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.