Ben Bankson, President of the Willowtown Association, attended this afternoon’s meeting of the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, and gives us this report:
Construction of two more sections of Brooklyn Bridge Park on the East River waterfront–a bridge from Squibb Park on Columbia Heights over Furman Street to the park and three playing fields and an adjoining picnic peninsula on Pier 5–is expected to commence in January following authorization of construction contracts for the sections at a meeting of the board of directors of the BBP corporation at noon on Tuesday, December 5, at the park’s newly opened offices on Furman at Joralemon Street.
Both contracts were awarded to Kelco Landscaping and Construction of Commack, N.Y. The firm previously did the landscaping and built the playgrounds on Piers 1 and 6. Among its other projects is the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial. The contract for the Squibb Park bridge is $6,223,864 and for the work on Pier 5, $19,245,180.
In her report to the board, BBP President Regina Myer discussed the future construction of a hotel and residential building at Pier 1. The proposals of five developers were unveiled at a meeting of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Community Advisory Council on November 22. The deadline for feedback on the proposals is December 22. Under the leadership of teams of architects, CAC members are giving their feedback at workshops at the park offices at 6:30 the evenings of December 5 and 6 and at 9 the morning of December 7. The feedback will go into a report to be submitted to those who select the winning proposal. The workshops are open to the public.
