Brooklyn Heights Blog

A group has filed a lawsuit in order to halt the Dock Street Dumbo project, alleging that the School Construction Authority didn’t conduct a proper, objective selection process for the site, as required by law.

The lawsuit, filed by the DUMBO Neighborhood Foundation, also said that the private developer, Two Trees, and New York City officials “made a number of public misrepresentations about the proposed Dock Street middle school in order to advance the re-zoning application.” Read more »

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz took to the steps of Borough Hall to announced that a total of $2 million has been secure to fund Brooklyn’s first gay center, the Brooklyn Community Pride Center. Read more »

The empty retail space at One Brooklyn Bridge Park (360 Furman Street), the former Watchtower building that has been converted to luxury condos, will soon be filled if the efforts of RAL Companies and Affiliates, who are charged with marketing the space, are successful.

The Real Deal: More than two years have passed since developer RAL Companies & Affiliates began marketing the 75,000-square foot retail space in its waterfront condominium conversion One Brooklyn Bridge Park…and it has yet to secure a tenant.

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[However,] [w]ithin the past 45 days, two local “seasoned” restaurant operators and one high-end market that “caters to grocery needs and prepared foods” contacted RAL about the space, [Ian] Levine [COO and CFO of RAL] said. He declined to disclose the retailers’ names and would not specify about possible lease pricing.

According to the article, two factors have been identified as working against a commercial lease. The first is the present almost total lack of foot traffic on Furman. RAL hopes this will end when Brooklyn Bridge Park opens this winter. However, only Piers 1 and 6, at opposite ends of the Park, are slated to open then. The only foot traffic this is likely to generate on Furman consists of those who may wish to walk from one open end of the Park to the other, a distance of over half a mile, along the street. The second is the slow sale of residential units in One BBP, residents of which may also be customers of whatever retail locates in the ground floor. RAL is counting on price reductions on these units, perhaps along with car give-aways, turning the tide.

Newly released documents reveal that Department of Education architects felt that Two Trees’ controversial Dock Street DUMBO project “would yield a very small school (compromised from our standards) with premium costs due to the mixed use with the high-rise residential building.”

However, the two-year-old internal e-mails do not address the current plans for the site, according to the School Construction Authority. Read more »

A BHB tipster sends in this photo taken this morning at 20 Henry Street.   Construction has been halted at the site and a giant hole in the roof was recently repaired.

We’re looking into this developing story.  Anyone have details?

Brownstoner writes today about price reductions at One Brooklyn Bridge Park (aka 360 Furman):

Brownstoner: On the heels of the news that the developer of One Brooklyn Bridge Park has started renting out a small portion of the 300 or so units that remain vacant comes word of price reductions at 15 apartments in the fancy waterfront complex. The affected units range from a 589-square-foot one-bedroom that started out asking $500,000 last December before dropping to $415,000 in June and then $325,000 last week (35 percent off peak!) to a 2,295-square-foot four-bedroom that started out at $2,750,000 before going to $2,295,000 and now $1,995,000. Are these levels starting to get interesting yet?

We got the following email from Councilman Yassky’s community liaison, Rami Metal, today. If you want more information or have questions, call the Councilman’s office at 718-875-5200, x14 for Metal. The full letter is attached as a pdf here.

In response to the Department of Building’s recent publication of all the stalled construction sites in the City, Council Member David Yassky has sent the attached letter to Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler. The letter addresses the overwhelming amount of stalled construction sites in the 33rd District and in Williamsburg in particular and it urges the administration to take a number of measures to improve the quality of life issues that have come as a result.

>> 72 Poplar Street, as of last week

Owners behind the 72 Poplar Street conversion project have been sent back to the drawing board once again.

Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission “strongly recommended” that the owners behind a plan to convert the former precinct house into a rental building rethink their designs.

“The commissioners felt that the addition was too big and asked them to seriously restudy the proposal for the project,” explained Landmarks spokeswoman Lisi DeBourbon. “The application wasn’t expressly denied, and there was no vote, but they did strongly urge the applicant to go back to the drawing board.”

Read more »

>> Lights out at 1-800-Mattress on Montague Street (BHB/Sarah Portlock)

The brick-and-mortar outposts of the 1800Matress.com company are closing down nationwide after the company filed for bankruptcy in March, now marking yet another vacant storefront on Montague Street.

Sleepy’s then acquired the telephone and Web properties of Dial-a-Mattress in a $25-million deal, but shuttered its remaining 20 showrooms, according to a Montague Street Sleepy’s salesman and an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that details the company’s demise.

Thanks to Bornhere for pointing out 1-800-Mattres’ closing.

What would you want to see in the spot at 136 Montague St., near Henry Street?

Updated Thursday at 4:50 pm

BHB just got word that the state Division of Housing & Community Renewal has rejected the landlord’s proposal to build a garage at the Riverside Apartments at the westernmost end of Joralemon Street.

Ken Fisher, the attorney for landlord Pinnacle Group, told BHB, “While we are disappointed, this is only the first level of administrative review at DHCR and we are confident that eventually our Landmarks Commission-approved project will move forward and will meet the needs of both area residents for parking as well as the tenants.”

The Pinnacle Group will file an appeal with the state “shortly,” Fisher said.

We now have the state’s full decision, Read more »