Muni Building May Add Stores

By on October 23, 2007 7:07 am in Landmark Preservation, News

The NY Daily News reports today that the Brooklyn Municipal Building on Joralemon Street may be adding two floors of retail outlets:

NY Daily News: Brooklyn Municipal Building to Convert…: Downtown Brooklyn planners are pushing an idea to outfit the borough’s staid, 80-year-old Municipal Building with two floors of shops, Brooklyn News has learned.

The first two levels of the Joralemon St. building, which now house city agencies, would be turned into 22,000 square feet of retail space.

“It’s a no-brainer from a retail perspective,” said Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Joe Chan, who pitched the idea to city officials this month.

Chan wouldn’t say whether he had ­begun wooing businesses to lease in the Art-Deco building, but pointedly ­suggested the space could accommodate an Apple store or a Bed, Bath & Beyond.

He also envisioned houseware, ­clothing or lifestyle shopping as well as a restaurant or an entertainment venue.

The paper adds that the BHA and the Municipal Arts Society have proposed making downtown Brooklyn a historic district named the Borough Hall Skyscraper District. BHA Executive Director Judy Stanton tells the paper she welcomes the retail concept, but made it clear that she'd rather see "smaller shops" than a big box retailer there.

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  • anon

    I would love to see a Bed Bath & Beyond or a Best Buy. Something big. We have enough dinky little tacky stores on Court Street. I think that corner is one of the most depressing in the area. A store would improve it 100%.

  • Truth Williams

    Bed Bath and Beyond? And put all those wonderful little fulton mall shops out of business? tsk tsk!

  • M

    If you want to live near a BBB or a Best Buy, move to Long Island or New Jersey.

  • DB

    Or Mhtn

  • lakisha

    what about us folks who moved from manhattan and invested in the nabe… stop living in the past!

  • Bklyn Native

    About the folks who moved from Manhattan? If you wanted Bklyn to be like Manhattan, you should have stayed in Manhattan.

    You\’re welcome to live here, just check the Manhattan entitlement attitude at the door. Or move back to whatever suburb you originally came from. You\’ll find plenty of big box chains in Dubuque.

  • anon

    right on

  • Simon

    If it were actually possible to buy what BB&B offers at a GOOD store run by “Mom and Pop” there would be no need for a conversation here. There’s only one segment that is met in the area and that’s by Cook’s Companion.

    TVs, electronics, etc? Forget it. Not happening here.

    Best Buy, while cheesy wouldn’t be bad. Apple Store would be fantastic.

    Another bunch of tiny stores with overpriced crap? No thanks.

  • splash

    Did anyone hear about the car crash on Montague and Court? What happen?

  • AliG

    Oh, let’s just add to the further ghetto-ification of Brooklyn Heights.

  • steve

    It’s hard to see how that area around Court and Joralemon Streets could get worse. Especially Court Street heading south toward Atlantic. Let’s face it, it’s a dump. Apple probably wouldn’t want to get anywhere near there. I good start for that area would be for the merchants along Court Street to wash the sidewalks in front of their stores to cut down on the foul stench. Why can’t delis and fast food joints get it together and clean up the greasy mess they make and that we all have to trek through? A large retailer like BB&B, for example, could only be an improvement at this point.

  • Billy

    I’m happy to hear that it is only suburbnites and Manhattanites that have attitide. Everyone knows that Brooklyn, crap capital of the world, has it all over Dubuque or Long island. Such sad deluded people posting here. Your lives are bad and lost in the Brooklyn ghetto. I’m sorry, but do not denigrate the rest of the region and the country because of your personal failings and failures.
    I would love to see a Bed Bath & Beyond there, yay America!

  • Chris

    I would prefer the Best Buy. I don’t know why Brooklyn lifers are so anal. What is wrong with a little convenience? Do you people never buy electronics? It’s not even really in the Heights. What’s goin on with that rumor of Urban Outfitter moving in on Atlantic? I’m really hoping that happens.

  • lakisha

    bklyn native – sorry for your confusion….our continued investment in this magnificent and diverse borough is testament to our commitment to live and thrive here….asking for better shopping options is not an attitude…it’s a necessity! sounds like you may be the one that needs attitude tweaking – but thank you for welcoming us the permission to live here!

  • hoppy

    Here are some ideas for the 210 Joralemon space…Bank, RE office, eyeglass store, pointless and overpriced boutique, cellphone store, disgusting supermarket and poor to mediocre restaurant…These would fit right in to the character of the neighborhood.