New Digs For Park Staff

By on February 25, 2011 10:09 pm in brooklyn bridge park, Real Estate

Officers and staff of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation should be moving into new quarters by fall.

New York Post: Brooklyn Bridge Park employees will soon have new offices – and in the heart of the 85-acre project.

The city’s Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp. yesterday began soliciting bids from contractors interested in renovating a former industrial building on the Brooklyn Heights waterfront, so it could be provide 7,500 square feet of office space for park officials, security officers and maintenance workers.

The building is at 354 Furman Street, at the corner of Joralemon, and across Joralemon from One Brooklyn Bridge Park. the building now houses the offices of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, a privately funded organization that promotes the Park and produces events like the popular Movies with a View series. The Conservancy will share space in the building with Park staff, but may move to new quarters later.

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  • bklyn20

    If they need more room, given all the budget worries, why not use some of the empty space, even some of the empty first-floor retail space, at 360 Furman/1BBP? This seems like another example of NOT looking for ways to economize. Do they need to have World-Class office cubicles, too?

  • nycgator

    This space was always intended to be park offices; how is this being wasteful? It is better to use a bulilding own by the park (no rent) then have to use office site space. And how would using empty retail space at OBBP be better? Do you think OBBP will just give them use of the space? They would have to rent it, so no economizing there. Also, the space is raw so it would have to be built out just like the space 354 Furman (again building out space the park owns makes alot more sense than buliding out something it doesn’t own).

    It seems some people will find the negative in eveything the park does.

  • bklyn20

    Yes, it has been and was always intended to be park offices. My thought is that if the current space is so bad, then look for better space elsewhere in the park. I find it pathetic and unfortunate that the long- empty space in 1 BBP can’t be used for this on a temporary basis, for little or no cost. Now is certainly not the time to spend ANY unnecessary money in the park.

  • nycgator

    There is no other space within the Park that I am aware of. It all has to be built at one point or another and this buildout will come from committed capital funds, not operating expenses.

    And the empty space at OBBP is owed by the sponsor at OBBP (full disclosure – I am a OBBP resident). Why would the sponsor give this space to the Park for “little to no cost”? He is actively marketing this space and having a temporary tenant doesn’t inur to his benefit particuarly at little to no cost (there are 4 leases currently being negotiated). And again the space at OBBP is completely unimproved. Money would have to go into it to make it a useable office, which is wasted money on a temporary space.

  • Spin Cycle

    Once again your bklyn20, your comments show that you have almost no understanding about how anything works, yet you still feel qualified to strongly criticize people who’s only crime is their desire to build a world class park in your neighborhood.

    Here are the facts: 1 BBP is long termed leased to the developer for 99 years. This means that the developer controls what happens in those retail spaces, not the park. THe developer is actively trying to lease those spaces out to retail tenants, so he has no reason to allow the park to use it for free – they would just be an impediment to getting the space rented. And even if he did let the park use the space for free, it is completely raw space. No heat, no AC, no lights. It would cost a bunch of money just to fit that space out too. So if the park officials took up your idea,they would still spend alot of money, be faced the prospect of getting kicked out of that space when/if it gets leased, then they would have to spend that money all over again to fit out the space in building 50. So why not spend that money only once and be done with it? Seems to make much more sense to me. Also I am told that a good chunk of this repair work is fixing a leaky roof, which means that it would have to be done no matter where the park offices go. Because if you don’t fix a leaky roof, it will eventually destroy your whole building.

  • bklyn20

    By all means, if there is a leak in the 354 Furman building ceiling, it should be fixed. But I—and many others – just don’t want to see ANY unnecessary funds spent on glamorizing the Conservancy and Development Corp’s office space. Remember, this is money that we are taking away from recreation for the children of Brooklyn.

    If needed, isn’t there ANY space in 1BBP that the park offices could use? Maybe one of the lower-floor unrented units facing the BQE? Not too long ago, “Top Chef got to use what I believe was the 2nd largest apartment in the building (from The Real Deal):

    “The eighth season of reality TV show “Top Chef” — premiering tomorrow on Bravo — will feature 18 contestants living at One Brooklyn Bridge Park’s 438-unit “Sky House” condominium located within the 85-acre park. The chefs lived in a 4,638-square-foot, four-bedroom waterfront triplex penthouse which features views of Manhattan and Brooklyn, including the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. The condo, priced at $7.25 million, is the second most expensive apartment on the market in Brooklyn. The One Brooklyn Bridge Park unit features a custom-built Italian kitchen by Dada with appliances from Sub Zero and Bosch, including a double wall oven and five-burner cook top. The condo also features over 10,000 square feet of amenities including a private elevator that leads directly into the penthouse, a private roof deck, a fitness center, a yoga room, a media lounge, and 7,000 square feet of landscaped gardens. RAL Companies is the project’s developer and the Developers Group is the exclusive sales and marketing firm. TRD”

    Sounds like built-out space to me. How much money was realized from the use of this space, and how much of it went to the park?
    I do realize that the Park does not control this space, but as the building is in a public park, perhaps it should be held to a different standard. If those who disagree with me here take a purely transactional view of the park’s relationship to the building, then I suppose they are simply supporting their own interests. This conflict of interest is one of the reasons why there should NOT be housing in parks. I do not expect to convert these people to my point of view.

    Additionally, I haven’t personally criticized people involved in the building and promotion if the current park plan. Instead, I criticize the way they are executing their positions. Remember, they are public servants. Our taxes pay their salaries. We have a right to evaluate the way they are, or are not, doing their job.

    Again, any unnecessary funds we spend on things like enhancing office space means is money taken away from the health and recreation of the children of Brooklyn.

  • bklyn20

    Or, to say it better, “…is money taken away from the health and recreation of the children of Brooklyn.”