Albee Square Deal Closes, Fewer Apartments Planned
When the deal was announced back in February, the consortium of investors purchasing the groundlease for the Gallery at Fulton Mall from Thor Equities had big plans: 475,000 square feet of retail space, 125,000 square feet of Class A office space, and 1,000 rental apartments (with 20 percent set aside for tenants of moderate income)….
When the deal was announced back in February, the consortium of investors purchasing the groundlease for the Gallery at Fulton Mall from Thor Equities had big plans: 475,000 square feet of retail space, 125,000 square feet of Class A office space, and 1,000 rental apartments (with 20 percent set aside for tenants of moderate income). Since the deal closed last week for a reported $120 million, it’s come out that the housing component has been scaled back by about 35 percent. The 1.6-million-square-foot tower (which will be anywhere from 40 to 60 stories) will still have 650 apartments, but the switcheroo is expected to result in a loss of about 70 affordable housing units, something that has community groups pissed off. The new owners haven’t announced what they’re going to do with the extra square footage from the 350 axed apartments yet.
Developers Pare Housing Plan for Albee Square [NY Observer] GMAP
Expansion, Skyscraper Planned for Albee Square Mall [Brownstoner]
Albee Square [Acadia Realty]
Supergirl! Get off this board and start hitting the books if you feel that given your present earning potential that your options in Brooklyn are dwindling! DON’T COMPLAIN – COMPETE!
I find it so odd that anyone calls sterling silver a banshee screamer.
that said, it’s amazing to see the ideas that come crawling out of the woodwork- I never realized we were in such a scary place – one group feeling entitled to everything because they have money and the rest of us laving to worry if we will be forced out of our homes and apartments just because some guy with money wised up and noticed what we’ve known all along. I agree with redient of- some legacy.
4:56:
Good for you. Yes, I had that apartment (with roomate) and salary too, and still couldn’t afford “cars, clothes, fancy electronic gadgets, every meal eating out.” 30% of salary going to rent not including uts. is a pain in the butt.
In fact my financial aid loaner felt I made so little, I was able to defer for years…
It’s obvious that the rich & poor live on two different Earths and it will probably always be this way.
I recommend people see “Children of Men”.
Sterling (aka Banshee Screamer), can’t someone enjoy a neighborhood without actually living there? I’m not sure about you but I travel all over the world but don’t own a home outside of Brooklyn. I can’t afford to purchase a home in the Bahamas but I’ve certainly been there a few times and had a heck of a time. Same could be said about the Upper East Side or the Hamptons. I don’t get the sense of entitlement of some that insist that all people should be afforded the right to live in an affluent and exclusive area whether or not they can afford to actually live there. This makes absolutely no sense to me.
Some of the ideas posted here are so morally and ethically appalling I find it heard to believe anyone would want to express their opinion. But black berry is so idiotic and so out of touch with the simplest social intelligence that when he writes :Everyone complains that teachers, firemen and policemen can’t afford to live in the areas where they work, but i counter that they’re the ones choosing the career path that doesn’t pay. If new teachers became scare and budding police/firemen decided the money wasn’t there it would force the City/State to make adjustments. But the changes right now (i.e. luxury condos) are a sign of the times and progress necessarily leads to displacement.” I have to stop and remember that some people are so self-centered and so completely without vision that you have to feel sorry for them. And tell. blackberry, when you are dying in a fire, or getting mugged or your kids can’t add 2 and 2, exactly who do you think you will need? If it weren’t for the people who choose to do these jobs, this country would not be worth living in. I would call you an idiot but you are so far beyond that I think we need to invent a new language just to describe you.
You obviously have no clue about why people are moving to Brooklyn- if it were just low interest rates we’d be an empty borough, except for those of us who love it enough to stay through good times and bad. As for someone deserving to be a homeowner- there’s that “I’m entitled, I have money” thing again. As for your final remark about gentrification “will “help populate the schools and raise overall standards of learning”- as if. If they haven’t cared enough to do it up to now, what makes you think they’ll do it then? Let me also point out that a productive society is not founded on haves and have nots- the Russian Revolution was.
As for the salaries of cops and firefighters, well David, I highly doubt you and the rest of the “if we can buy it we can kick ’em out crowd” would ever put their lives on the line for someone else. think these guys get paid enough to do that? So comparing your dip ass little financial or realestate or cushy desk post college job salary level with a cop or a firefighter is like comparing a squeak (you) and a roar. And anonymous at 3:59- no- but they sure do die or get wounded a hell of a lot more than a guy like you hiding behind your desk. Oh yeah the pensions are nice- if they live long enought to get them- and they earned every red cent of it.
Just goes to show what we’ve become- ungrateful, uncompassionate, short-sighted- and this is the legacy we pass on to our kids. There’s no reasoning with the likes of you, no compromising, no cooperating- all the things that make society work. Sterling is too right. Hyperbole not.
Supergirl – I graduated in the early 90’s;
The standard criteria people use for housing is 1/3 of your gross income. You are correct 1K a month on 32K a year is tight BUT a cop earns that BEFORE overtime, night differential etc… – and the cop will be up to 36k in a matter of months anyway (of which 1K a mo is 1/3). And this is for a rookie cop – probably a 25yr old kid. Most of us had choose to have a roomate at 25yrs old too.
I really don’t think this city is doomed if a rookie cop can’t afford a 3br apartment in Cobble Hill.
That being said I would really like to know what you think the solution is to maintaining ‘affordable’ housing in the most desirable sections of Brooklyn.
That’s the point, I hardly think I am screaming like a banshee, I think I have made perfect sense. It’s people who take snippits out of what I’m saying, like the Blade Runner analogy, or the sex lives of teachers, and make more out of that than the salient points regarding what kind of society we are turning into, who have the greatest problem with me. Banshees get attention. Works for me, if obvious reason doesn’t. Perhaps you’d like to make a further big deal out of that, instead of addressing the real issues here? Is money the only qualifier of value here in 2007 New York?
I disagree, supergirl. With proper budgeting, 32K is a liveable salary. I once rented a $600/month apt. while earning 23K/year. I paid all of my bills, paid off my student loans, and still had a couple of grand in my savings account (and no, I didn’t get one penny from anyone else, including parents). It’s when people waste money on cars, clothes, fancy electronic gadgets, every meal eaten out, etc. that they wrack up debt and ruin their credit.
4:07: Nice ad hom attack. And typical.