Office Tower Begins to Rise Next to City Point in Increasingly Dense Downtown Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn increasingly feels like one large, loud construction site, and yet another tower there is starting to rise.

Said building, located at 420 Albee Square, will wear the name One Willoughby Square. During a recent visit, workers were on site, and it has risen three stories rather quickly.

The building will eventually reach 35 stories, one of the tallest in Brooklyn, and will be dedicated mostly to office space. Retail will be on the first floor, and a school will occupy floors two through six.

Developer JEMB Realty, who purchased the property in 2014 for $38,464,188, made a deal with the NYCEDC in 2017 for additional neighboring lots in exchange for the school.

Based on renderings, the facade will be mostly glass with blue strips between the floors. The entire building is shaped like an upside down letter “T” with a larger, four-story base and a spike sticking up out of the middle.

FXCollaborative is behind the design and, according to a story in the New York Post, was so in love with the building they decided to lease the seventh through ninth floors.

It will occupy crowded terrain: it’s sandwiched between the already completed residential building called The Azure at 436 Albee Square on one side and the empty lot once planned for Willoughby Park on the other. Brooklyn Point, currently under construction, is down the block and across the street in shopping mall and residential tower City Point.

Albee Square has been slated for development for years, following the city’s removal of rent-regulated residents from apartments in the area via eminent domain. The area has been steeped in drama, which has included the demolition of those buildings, the long-delayed demolition of vacated tenements and the promise of a park that, as of now, seems more like a pipe dream than reality.

[Photos by Craig Hubert unless otherwise noted]

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• Another Tower Planned for Albee Square Near City Point in Downtown Brooklyn
• Long-Awaited Downtown Tower on Albee Square Will Be Offices
• How Six Controversial Proposed Skyscrapers Will Radically Transform Brooklyn’s Skyline

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