DBP Does Its Five-Year Vision Thing
As we post this, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is about to begin briefing to the media about the five-year vision for the downtown area, loosely defined as the Flatbush corridor leading from the Manhattan Bridge to what the proposed Atlantic Yards project. The briefing may be a little anti-climactic though, since DBP gave The Post…
As we post this, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is about to begin briefing to the media about the five-year vision for the downtown area, loosely defined as the Flatbush corridor leading from the Manhattan Bridge to what the proposed Atlantic Yards project. The briefing may be a little anti-climactic though, since DBP gave The Post the scoop a day early. What you see above are the envisioned transformations of two spots—the Metrotech area and the BAM Cultural District—that ran in the paper this morning. The article also trots out a lot of big numbers:
• $9.5 billion
• 56 projects
• 14,300 new residential units
• 35,000 new residents
• 1,800 hotel rooms
• 3.2 million s.f. of commercial
The thing we were most interested to see, however, was the glimpse of the Flatiron-shaped BFC tower currently rising at the southeast corner of Myrtle and Flatbush; we’ve been trying to get a look for a while but the developer has been closely guarding the finished product. You can check out two not particularly close-up views on the jump.
B’klyn Reaches for The Skies [NY Post]
Downtown Brooklyn Renderings [NY Post]
Downtown Brooklyn Video [NY Post]
35,000 new residents and not a single new school is mentioned. Outrageous.
Can anyone commment on the appearance in the video of a building on the SOuth side of Schermerhorn between nevins and 3rd Ave? (It appears around 2:45 or 2:50 in the movie.) The only empty area there is the admittedly underused Sixteen Sycamores Park — which would seem due for reviatlization and not destruction if this much additional housing and hotels come on line in the next five years?
Also, did anyone notice the U-Shaped sleeve built around the Atlantic Avenue jail?
Just one other point of view: people all of this sounds great but remember that our streets (lanes) are not nor have ever been designed to accomadate this kind of traffic, Flatbush, Atlantic Ave, and most streets are two or three lanes, while the city is three to four lanes and much wider and longer, stadiums, hotels, high rises etc.. all should stay in the city, I think queens blvd. is going to have some competition in being the blvd of death,
think outside the box (money) for just a second,,
Just in time for the next Great Depression…
I think we have to be pragmatic about the future of Brooklyn. We don’t want to lose the things we love about it – that being our brownstone and residential neighborhoods, but we desperately need jobs and affordable housing. We need to have companies coming back to Brooklyn, and we need reasons for them to come, and since perception is a huge part of that, downtown Brooklyn will need to change.
The best place to build all of that is right there, like it or not. I think it is best to choose our battles, and wage war when appropriate. I am against AY as it stands now, but don’t have a problem with some kind of development there, the Yards are a perfect place. My objections are with FCR, eminent domain, and the need to destroy Pacific and Dean Streets. I’d like to see a more significant affordable component to all of the residential development, but concede that some is better than none.
I think we as citizens, should be on top of developers and planners to make sure that projects that get our tax money, in whatever form that takes, conform to standards of epro nvironmental building practices, fair housing practices, fair employment practices, and safety. This “New Brooklyn” is supposed to be for the betterment of us all. What better way than to make sure that building jobs and trades, housing, and future jobs and employment opportunities get spread around to those Brooklynites (and others) who need them? That would be the future of Brooklyn I’d like to see, not just more luxury housing for the rich, parks and new schools for the rich, and businesses that are geared only towards the rich.
I’m with BrooklynLove. This is going to be great for Brooklyn. I’m a little worried a lot of these buildings will never materialize however. Seems like we’re a bit late to the party.
I agree with BrooklynLove. I have been a Brooklyn resident my entire life (I grew up in PLG and I now live in Downtown Brooklyn) and it is exciting to see the borough develop. That said, many of the new buildings going up are horrible from an architectural standpoint which is unfortunate.
I wish my firm would move to Downtown Brooklyn… I could walk to work or have a 8 min train ride…
10:21, are you saying more Hasidim are moving to Brooklyn? Wait, I see, you meant “money,” not “monsey.”
More seriously, it is hard to say, as BrooklynLove does, that “the alternative is to continue losing these opps to jersey city, and eventually LIC-queens plaza.” That might be true if office buildings were being built, as the Downtown Brooklyn Development Plan proposed. But I don’t think that the eventual owners of expensive condominiums, which is what is actually being built, are looking at Jersey City as an alternative.