Big Bucks for Jazzing Up 'Outdated' Fulton Mall
As part of a $40 million investment in the Downtown Brooklyn streetscape, the city’s Economic Development Corp. will pony up $15 million to spruce up the Fulton Street Mall. “You’ll have a great new open space a la Herald Square at 34th Street in Manhattan, and an overhaul of the Fulton Mall’s physical environment,” said…
As part of a $40 million investment in the Downtown Brooklyn streetscape, the city’s Economic Development Corp. will pony up $15 million to spruce up the Fulton Street Mall. “You’ll have a great new open space a la Herald Square at 34th Street in Manhattan, and an overhaul of the Fulton Mall’s physical environment,” said Joseph Chan, president of the city’s Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. The effort will include new bus shelters, benches and street furniture as well as the addition of new lights and trees. Another $3 million to $4 million will be out towards creating a 10,000-square-foot green space at the former Albee Square mall that could double as a place for public performances. Work is expected to begin a year from now. Even sooner, the greening of Downtown Brooklyn will also extend to two “gateway to Brooklyn” planting projects on Flatbush Avenue and Boerum Place.
$15 Mil for ‘Herald Square in Bklyn’ [NY Post]
the point is that it will be hard to get out the tacky merchants because people spend SERIOUS money there..”over 100,000 shoppers a day”…sneakers cell phones and oversized clothing may not be everyones taste, but damn if thousands of kids arent spending all their money there each week.
all of the historic and grand architecture of the street has been ruined from misuse and absurd signage…not sure I see a return to the glory days people describe anytime soon.
thank you Brower, very interesting recap. A couple of comments though:
not too much on the street is landmarked.
There is Gage and Tollner, The Dime Savings Bank, the Offerman building, and that other Art-Deco-y store near Hoyt. The rest is up for grabs.
ALso the upper floors of the narrower buildings are empty because of the expense of upgrading them to meet code. Anything that would take up valuable ground floor rentable sqaure footage such as an elevator or a second stair, isn’t worth it as the real money to be made in this location is steetlevel retail. The building codes will make it near impossible for any of these smaller buildings to accommodate residential above. Its a big problem.
The former owners of Gage and Tollners tried and couldn’t do it, It would have meant destroying the restaurant and pouring hundreds of thousand into the building. Illegal conversions is another story.
I dunno 1:33, anything residential in AY is a few years off… in the meantime, you have Oro, 110 Livingston, BellTel, the unnamed 800-900 condos going in the Albee Square area, etc. I think the “bougeoisie” as you put it will strike downtown Brookyn first. And I imagine you’re right – the transformation will be quick.
The evolution of the Fulton Mall is actually quite interesting. When I was growing up,(dinosaurs roaming earth,etc) shopping was an event you dressed up for, and an infrequent trip. I didn’t grow up in Bklyn, but when I first moved to NYC in the late 70’s, Fulton St. still had many of the large old stores that made it a shopping destination – A&S, May’s, and many more large retailers, including the bargain stores like Woolworth’s (complete with lunch counter) and McCrory’s. Most of the larger buildings along the Fulton St. corridor were not subdivided into 3 or 4 storefronts, they were all single stores. One by one they closed and the spaces were subdivided and rented to the types of businesses that are there now.
The last renovation of the area, in the 80’s, when they made it a pedestrian mall, was a last ditch effort to keep the old middle class, and mostly white shoppers in the area. It didn’t work. I don’t think there is a single business there now that was there even twenty years ago. In the insuing vacuum, landlords starting renting to volume discounters and merchants selling inexpensive clothing and expendable items to what they soon realized was a profitable group – the mostly minority lower middle and lower income shoppers.
Now we can argue till the cows come home about the ramifications of the spending habits of this group, but the fact remains that this group of shoppers has supported the Mall in its present state, and like it or not, it has thrived.
The area is landmarked for the most part, and any successful rejuvination must also include opening up the upper floors of these buildings to businesses and living spaces. What a waste to only utilize the ground floor of a huge 6 story building! Fulton Street has some of the most expensive rental rates around. Any new business, whether upscale or not, will need to do really well, really quickly. Since more upscale people do not frequent the mall, chances are any new business is going to continue to cater to the present shopping population.
I think there is plenty of room to upgrade every aspect of the area. I have long felt that if current shoppers boycotted some stores for only a week, as a protest for the dirt and sloppiness and basic contempt for customers, we’d see some changes really quickly. As it is, there is no reason for anyone to change, which is why no upscale businesses will take a chance, and why the mall is so unappealing to other groups.
And just as an aside, to 12:55’s remarks – hair and nail salons HAVE been the key to someone’s future. These have often been the only businesses available to many mostly minority women to open. A good hair salon has been a way out of poverty for many. I will grant there seem to be far too many of them, but until lower income women of color can get training and education to open stock brokerage firms, or doctor’s offices, or many other kinds of businesses, they will continue to have hair salons. It’s better than being unemployed.
The retail along Court Street used to be pretty bad as well, I recall one block in Brooklyn Heights being used as a substitute set for wartime Saigon by a Manhattan film maker. But Court Street has improved a lot over the past ten years although there are still crappy parts.
The stores along Fulton Street (before the benighted mall) were nice -just look up at the old architecture peeking through the giant billboards. When and if the bourgeoisie decide to reclaim it, the transformation will be quick. But then again the center of middle class gravity may shift to the A.Y. leaving Fulton mall behind as a relic of the 1970’s.
Excellent- this will help facilitate further residential development along the Fulton and N. Flatbush corridors.
I moved to the area over 3 years ago and until about 3 months ago I thought the Macy’s was closed. Imagine my surprise when I walked past and saw people going in and out.
I agree with everyone who thinks that A&S was the flagship of Fulton Mall. The Macy*s there now is like the ugly, illegitimate, step child of Macy*s in Herald Square. Customer service is a nightmare, it’s dirty, the rugs could use a good cleaning and the hardwood floors have seen better days and unless I’m desparate I try to avoid it.
I have lived here so long that I still think of the last remodeling as ‘new’.
The guy who wrote about A&S closing is spot on. I am middle class but used to buy things for my kids at Cookies – the prices are great. As for the guy who has trouble driving around – the last renovation was aimed at making it a pedestrian mall and the streets were closed to cars intentionally so, yes, driving is a problem there.
At this point I miss A&S, have no interest in the Macy’s there and don’t care too much what they do with it. If you have to take the subway there, as I do, you might as well spend an extra 20 minutes on the train and go to 34’th St Macy’s or other stores in Manhattan. I think that is a problem with many stores in downtown Brooklyn, a lot of the middle class works in the city and can shop there and that is hard to compete with.
By the way I noticed Aaron’s on 5’th Avenue closed – another retail landmark bites the dust.