Soaring City Tech Tower Cut Down to Size
Forest City Ratner’s plans to develop the tallest building in Brooklyn are no more, according to an article in the Daily News. The Renzo Piano-designed City Tech tower on Jay Street was supposed to reach 100 stories, with CUNY facilities on lower floors and condos on upper levels. Now Piano is off the job and…
Forest City Ratner’s plans to develop the tallest building in Brooklyn are no more, according to an article in the Daily News. The Renzo Piano-designed City Tech tower on Jay Street was supposed to reach 100 stories, with CUNY facilities on lower floors and condos on upper levels. Now Piano is off the job and the building may only be built to a modest 10 stories. City Tech’s whittling follows a deal collapse between FCR and CUNY; according to an FCR-CUNY statement, the ambitious project could not be reconciled with the college’s immediate need to move forward with a first-class academic space to serve its growing student enrollment.” A Brooklyn Paper story on the collapsed deal quotes Councilman David Yassky as saying FCR’s decision probably has to do with Bruce Ratner’s iffy finances and the fact that many developers are reconsidering residential construction. He may be overextended right now, said Yassky. Look, a lot of developers are re-evaluting their numbers and feel that residential buildings don’t work right now, he said. Whatever the logic is behind the decision, it seems like a pretty big blow to the ongoing plans to change the face of Downtown Brooklyn.
Ratner Tower Whittled Down [NY Daily News]
Ratner Kills Mr. Brooklyn [Brooklyn Paper]
Development Watch: City Tech Tower, Take 2 [Brownstoner]
Metrotech is building Robots and Boss Ratner is using the brains of dead crack heads from the 1980’s. Today they roam the world wide web and spread fear. Tomorrow they will roam our streets and replace our police force.
A crack head that can afford a computer and keep it? Wow, Metro Tech must be awsome, even the crack heads are rich and living large!
Metro Tech is pretty damn hot!
I LOVE METRO TECH. I LOVE METRO TECH! I LOVE METRO TECH!! I LOVE METRO TECH!!!
I LOVE METRO TECH. I LOVE METRO TECH! I LOVE METRO TECH!! I LOVE METRO TECH!!!
I LOVE METRO TECH. I LOVE METRO TECH! I LOVE METRO TECH!! I LOVE METRO TECH!!!
METRO TECH RULES!!!!!
2:02 = crack head
I live next to the Metro Tech and love it. Eat shit you old run down townhouse owners! You wish you had a “brownstone”.
“Correction: Residential building doesn’t provide the same monstrous returns these big developers crave.”
CORRECTION DENIED. THERE WILL BE NO RETURN AT ALL FROM THIS TOP OF THIS MARKET.
“There is still large demand for housing, at the right price of course.”
BINGO. BUT THAT PRICE IS 25 TO 50 PERCENT SOUTH.
Ratner is a corporate welfare queen. His developments flop, then he’s bailed out by his political connections who put public agencies into space that’s unrentable to private tenants.
When wil Metro tech change the damn light bulbs in the Chase logo?
Metrotech is not a success because of what it “Could have been” – what kind of measuring stick is that? Under that definition – virtually everyone is a failure…..
Metrotech is not a success because it isnt a “real neighborhood” – it wasnt designed to be a neighborhood – it was designed to be an OFFICE development and if it was integrated into the neighborhood that existed there in 1985 no one would have rented there.
Your viewing what “could have been” based on 2008’s reality not a 1980’s reality. At the time Metrotech was a huge gamble and a quantum leap into Brooklyn’s future and set the stage for the smaller) leaps that took place after. And for all the changes that have occurred since Metrotech was built – it is still viable, rented and successful.