Public Hearing on Future of Admirals Row Tonight
Tonight the long-awaited follow-up to last December’s public hearing on the future of Admirals Row takes place at Borough Hall. All we can say in advance of the meeting is that we hope that the spirit of creativity and compromise can win the day. At this point, there appears to be strong political support for…
Tonight the long-awaited follow-up to last December’s public hearing on the future of Admirals Row takes place at Borough Hall. All we can say in advance of the meeting is that we hope that the spirit of creativity and compromise can win the day. At this point, there appears to be strong political support for including a supermarket on the site to address to current lack of options currently available to the residents of the nearby Farrugut, Ingersoll and Whitman Houses. There is also a large group of people who feel strongly that the Admirals Row houses deserve to be preserved, and a recent study commissioned by the National Guard gave weight to this view. (The report stated that the structures have a “high level of historic integrity.”) So what’s the answer? Find a way to create a supermarket while preserving most, if not all, of the houses. One such proposal has already been put forth by a team from Pratt. The one stakeholder that would be unhappy with that scenario would most likely be the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which wants to squeeze a new industrial building onto the site along with a massive parking lot for the market; the BNYDC has also said it does not want to assume control of Admiral’s Row from the National Guard if it comes with preservation strings attached. As with most thing, the real rub comes down to dollars and cents. It should be an interesting evening. The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. tonight at Borough Hall.
Pratties Have ‘Cake-and-Eat-It’ Design for Admiral’s Row [Brownstoner]
Guard Starts Talks ‘To Come Up With Alternatives’ For Row [Brownstoner]
James Opens Door to (Partial) Admiral’s Row Preservation [Brownstoner]
I wish Whole Foods would scrap their Gowanus site and set up shop in the Navy Yard. Surely they could be suckered in subsidizing the buildings.
Dumbo is about $20/SF. Downtown Brooklyn is about $25/SF. Office space in the Navy Yard itself is about $15/SF. Keep in mind that access to subways pretty much sucks, which has a big impact on rents.
As sick as you are about the bean counters – we are doubly sick of people who denigrate us as bean counters and accuse us of having no imagination. Anyone can come up with interesting ideas if they are not bound by any restrictions. The truly creative people who have made this city great and in the cutting edge in so many industries are those who have figured out how to take a creative idea and bend it to fit the harsh restrictions that fiscal realities impose. You can talk on and on about how sure you are that it would work, but you obviously don’t have the knowledge of how the real estate development world works. I don’t understand why you are so resistant to this. Do you argue with the dr when he tells you’re sick? THis is a profession, and alot of people have spent alot of time becoming knowledgable about how it works. Spend some time – learn how it works, then get back to me.
And by the way, the artist studios in the Navy Yard were funded through a federal grant – which further proves my point that this is not feasible without subsidy.
I actually read law last year on government owned property. It referred to how they were required to maintain the buildings and/or land. I can’t recall exactly, but I thought they were bound by law to maintain it to a certain degree. IF Admiral’s row is “transferred” to a private entity, as I’ve been reading about, the law would no longer apply. Is anyone familiar with law regarding state owned or federal owned property?
here’s a link to the report done for the national guard on the buildings
http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/buslinks/admiral/pdf/report.pdf
I actually read law last year on government owned property. It referred to how they were required to maintain the buildings and/or land. I can’t recall exactly, but I thought they were bound by law to maintain it to a certain degree. IF Admiral’s row is “transferred” to a private entity, as I’ve been reading about, the law would no longer apply. Is anyone familiar with law regarding state owned or federal owned property?
here’s a link to the report done for the national guard on the buildings? http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/buslinks/admiral/pdf/report.pdf
Anyone know what an average square foot price would be for commercial office space in DUMBO, downtown Bklyn, or comparable area?
Seems like a unique, historic and potentially gorgeous renovated space in a Row house would command a better price than $15/SF. Granted, because it’s out of the way, it wouldn’t work for every kind of business. I’m in the home design biz, a showroom/workspace on a floor of one of those houses would be unique enough to get the kind of buzz to draw people in, especially if enough like minded businesses made it a real location. Furniture and art restorers, architects, product designers, graphics and photographers, etc, do not depend on off the street traffic to make their business. Your customers will come. The Yard already has some great artisan studios there. It, and the nearby Wallabout area have the potential to become not only a destination for these trades, but a real district. Home design is one of the few growing NYC industries, why not invest in it?
That, along with preserving history, could mean a profitable venture. Yes, it would take years, but I’m so tired of bean counters telling us that something won’t succeed, because they know it won’t. MMHTPH, you may know your facts and figures, but where is the vision that used to make NYC the cutting edge of so many different industries? If not design, then something else.
I am by no means an authority. I just understand the very real constraints that are put on this site by the realities of the economics of real estate market and the policy ambitions of the Navy Yard folks. The fact is, saving these buildings, as laudable of a goal as that is, is going to require subsidy. And even though this whole debate has been kicking around for about 3 years now, no one has been able to identify a source for that subsidy. So that means that this is going to have to get in a way that relies on the marketplace.
Make My Heights the P Heights,
It seems that you really are quite the authority on the subject! Please tell us more!!
Yes, the Pratt plan is one possibility, but it’s an entirely unfeasible plan for so many reasons, that it would take me too long to list, and I’ve got work to do today and can’t get into another argument with bxgirl about this again.
The problem with MM’s suggestion about using them as Architect’s offices etc is that the revenue generated from those uses (ballpark $15/SF) doesn’t even come close to justifying the renovation costs of those buildings (at least $250/SF).
I’ve never seen bkreal estate veteran post before – but he/she seems to be the only one on here who’s thinking about this practically and with knowledge of how these things work. There is a compromise to be had here. Save one or two houses, give the Navy Yard some money to help offset the cost of preservation of those houses (probably around $5 -7 million would cover it) and let the Navy Yard reconfigure the rest of the lot the way they see fit. Asking for any more preservation will kill the whole deal and will mean that the whole thing sits dormant for several more years while the houses slowly decay.
Thanks, kingstonlounge. It would be a shame to lose the Row for lack of imagination, before even crying about lack of funds. Unless I melt before tonight, I’m going to try to go to the hearing.
Does your screen name have anything,to do with the actual Kingston Lounge in Crown Heights? That is such a fabulous site for a superior, long awaited, local dining spot. I heard someone bought the building.