DUMBO-based developer Fortis Manor, which purchased the homely one-story Brooklyn Eagle Building at 30 Henry Street & Middagh in November 2011, paid $3.5 million for the property, according to a post today on Brownstoner. Broker Massey Knakal confirmed the figure, which is $500K over its asking price of $3 million.

That comes out to a cost of $209 per buildable square foot. Brownstoner notes that the site allows for a total of 16,740SF on the site. As previously reported, a six-story red brick building is slated to take its place.

The Brooklyn Eagle building was constructed in 1963 and was thus landmarked, but it has already been approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission for its new incarnation. A rendering for the future building is below.

(30 Henry Street photo: Brownstoner)

The Brooklyn Heights Association’s annual House Tour (the photo was taken in one of the houses on this year’s tour) is coming soon, on Saturday, May 12. You can find more information, and buy tickets, here.

The BHA needs “house volunteers” who “are asked to take a shift, watching rooms to be sure there is no touching, no photo taking, etc.” either from 11:45 a.m.-2:30 p.m. OR from 2:20-5:05 p.m. Volunteer bakers are also needed to make three or four dozen cookies, squares or bars and deliver them in a covered container to Plymouth Church (enter at 75 Hicks) on Friday, May 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. or Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. If you would like to be a house volunteer, bake, or both, please e-mail info@thebha.org.

Brown Harris Stevens has just listed a townhouse for sale at 32 Livingston Street with the kind of lofty price tag we’re becoming accustomed to in Brooklyn Heights: $6 million. This follows the sale of the Capote House on Willow for $12 million in March, a Garden Place townhouse for $10 million in February and a Watchtower residence on Orange in January for $7.1 million.

Curbed is certainly seduced by the Livingston property’s historic beauty, which BHS describes as a “great American home available to connoisseurs, preservationists, townhouse lovers, or anyone that would like become one.”

The 25X54-foot brownstone, built in 1850 and “mindfully preserved for 162 years,” is currently configured as an upper triplex with a full “versatile” attic, a garden floor rental and a high-ceilinged cellar. The main living space features 7 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 wood-burning fireplaces and 4 decorative fireplaces, along “with the highest degree of craftsmanship and thought, in grand Italianate style.”

Much more detail is available with the full listing here, including the full floorplan and eight photos.

(Photos: Brown Harris Stevens)

The Brooklyn Heights Association will hold its annual House Tour on Saturday, May 12. More details will be given on BHB when available. The photo, by our own Homer Fink, is from the 2008 tour. There is no assurance that the house shown in the photo will be included in this year’s tour, but the roster of houses open for viewing has consistently been spectacular.

This is why we treasure Brooklyn Heights’ landmarked status, which, as many know, became the first community in the nation to mandate a cease fire on decimating the facades of historic buildings, in 1965. Let’s take an historic look at 109 Montague Street (full photo views are below the jump)…

Our first pic is from 1916, when the location between Henry and Hicks streets offered locals The Brooklyn Valet. The words on each side of the window advertise “Dyers” and “Cleansers,” while signs promote “Gloves Cleaned 5 cents” and “Ladies & Gents Garments cleaned, pressed, dyed and repaired.”

Our second reminiscence is the once-beloved Heights Books, which opened at 109 Montague in 1999 as a treasure trove of used and new volumes, packed to the ceiling amid its narrow aisles. The store closed its Montague location in 2009, when the destination’s five-story building was put on the market for $4.5 million—to be delivered vacant. (BHB post here). Heights Books made a noble effort and moved to 120 Smith Street in Cobble Hill… but, alas, shuttered for good in February 2011.

And, third, the locale, as of August 11, 2010, is now home to Crumbs Bake Shop. Yes, yes, it’s a chain, but is described on a number of websites as “cupcake heaven.” It certainly seems to be doing boffo business… for now.

(Photos: Montage: Chuck Taylor / Below: 1) New York Public Library 2) archive 3) BHB/Sarah Portlock 4) archive 5) Chuck Taylor 6) Chuck Taylor 7) Crumbs Bake Shop)

The meticulous facade restoration at 177-179 Columbia Heights—where residents discovered lavish ornamentation adorning the first two floors of the 29-unit co-op building, comprising fruit, flowers and mythical creatures, dating back to 1920—has been completed.

Six months and some $300,000 later, “It feels wonderful to have finally finished the restoration,” says Joe Levine, the resident who spearheaded the facade’s research after its discovery. He received an award for the project from the Brooklyn Heights Association in February.

Read all about the process of the restoration in a highly detailed story in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle here.

(Photos below: Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

Despite moving to New York City in 1995, it wasn’t until I bought my first coop in Brooklyn Heights 12 years ago, that I first set foot in the borough of BK. In those first five years in NYC, I worked my way through three nabes—the Upper West Side, Chelsea and Tribeca—before a friend suggested Brooklyn Heights.

“But that’s in… um, Brooklyn,” I responded. Oh, how times have changed.

In the fall of 1999, after first setting foot in the Heights to begin my search, I recall vividly sniffing the air—and capturing the wondrous waft of autumn leaves. Nature was all about. The main drag Montague Street was charming. The area was clean, proud and felt so very safe. And then I found the Promenade. Sold!

After seeing dozens of overpriced or undersized units, I at last found my utopia: a two-bedroom, 950-square-foot dump in a beautifully historic building near the end of Montague Street, just steps from the Promenade. Ultimately, I paid $255,000 for the apartment, which at one time was the super’s home (I was told he not only had a large extended family, but frequent guests from afar, who ultimately left the unit in disastrous condition). After a typically gruesome coop interview, I moved in May 2, 2000.

While the second-floor apartment is hardly light-filled, I can’t imagine living anywhere else today. It doesn’t hurt that a grocery store and liquor shop—essential—are mere blocks away. So it might be shady indoors, but it takes all of 60 seconds to discover paradise on the outside.

Over the years, my building has installed a rooftop deck, replaced the elevator, added storage in the basement, while my neighbors (with expected exceptions here and there) are a gregarious lot. Meanwhile, I’ve renovated my kitchen and second bedroom, gutted the bathroom, and had the good fortune of having my master bedroom redone on an episode of HGTV’s “Dear Genevieve.”

And during the past decade-plus, I’ve come to discover and treasure a wide swath of big ole Brooklyn. Working for the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010, I walked through Downtown Brooklyn every day for seven months—which I admittedly once viewed as seedy and a bit discomforting. Over time, I came to fondly regard that area as a cool, reminiscent mirror image of Manhattan in the late 1970s (not so much anymore). Alongside my Census duties, I discovered—block by block—Fort Greene, Prospect Park, DUMBO, Vinegar Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook and Sunset Park.

And now some history of the building I call home: 62 Montague Street. The Harbor View Apartments, later named The Arlington, were completed in 1887. The building was designed by Montrose W. Morris, who had built his own residence in Brooklyn and opened it to the public as his office, as a means of advertising his acumen.

Among visitors was developer Louis F. Seitz, who, mightily impressed, commissioned an apartment house on property he owned along Brooklyn’s Nostrand Avenue. He was so pleased with the resulting Alhambra that he commissioned Morris to design two additional multiple-family residences—a growing trend amid the prominent brownstones in the Heights.

In 1885, architectural firm Parfitt Brothers built the Montague, Grosvenor and Berkeley apartment buildings on Montague Street. Two years later, Morris was commissioned to design The Arlington, just up from a ferry landing at the foot of Montague Street. At the time, a trolley ran to the end of Montague, where the ferry took old-moneyed passengers to Wall Street.

Harlem-born American playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005) lived on the 10th floor of 62 Montague in the early 1940s with his first wife Mary Grace Slattery, paying $60 a month, while writing and working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It’s said to be one of four addresses he held in the Heights. In 1946, his play “All My Sons” earned him a first Tony Award. In 1949, Miller’s career-defining “Death of A Salesman” won a Pulitzer Prize and another Tony, propelling him to fame. He met Marilyn Monroe in 1951, then left poor Mary to become Monroe’s third husband in July 1956. She wasn’t having Brooklyn, and the couple moved to Manhattan. They divorced in 1961 and Monroe died 19 months later. Perhaps she’d still be with us had the pair stayed in BK?

The Arlington, meanwhile, originally contained 20 family apartments and 10 “bachelor”—or studio—units. For its first 20 years, at 10 stories, the building was the tallest residence in the Heights.

In 1965, 62 Montague joined with the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood as a National Historic Landmark for its “rare charm and historic significance.” The petition read: “Of the 1,284 buildings fronting on streets within the proposed District, 684 were built before the Civil War and 1,078 before the turn of the century. There are 60 Federal, 405 Greek Revival, 47 Gothic Revival and 201 Anglo-ltalianate buildings, as well as 216 buildings in eclectic and miscellaneous styles, not to mention 61 early carriage-houses grouped largely along unspoiled mews. In addition, 190 buildings are of generally conforming scale.”

To maintain the auspices of its Landmark stature, 62 Montague Street has been undergoing a massive renovation to restore and repair its façade to original grandeur: which boasts astonishing details, including terra cotta cherubs, intricate roping in the concrete and other decorative elements from sidewalk level to tip-top.

Whenever friends come to visit in New York, they are consistently charmed, if not seduced, by the architectural grandeur and calm of the Heights. I always nod in agreement, noting that when I worked in Manhattan as a journalist at Billboard magazine and then came home to Brooklyn, I felt I had a “there” and a “here,” two distinctly phenomenal destinations only a subway ride apart. How fortunate I am to have the two: New York City and the greatest neighborhood in the world, Brooklyn Heights. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.

The recent designation of the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District brought attention to the thirty story building at 75 Livingston Street, completed in 1928 as the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Building but since converted to co-operative apartments, whose residents opposed the landmarking because they feared it would increase the cost of maintaining the building and snarl such routine matters as window replacements in bureaucratic red tape. This has led to the Times to publish, in its “City Room” blog, a story about the architect who designed it.

The New York Times: The architect Abraham J. Simberg has finally received what he was looking for all along: professional respect and appreciation for the vibrant Jazz Age tower he inscribed on the downtown Brooklyn skyline in 1928…75 Livingston Street.

It is the crown jewel in the new Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District…along Court Street, created last year by the Landmarks Preservation Commission and sustained Feb. 1 by the City Council. In describing 75 Livingston Street, developed by Jacob Adelman, the commission said it was a work of “considerable elegance and sophistication,” with “projecting pavilions, chamfered corners and secondary setbacks that give the building visual interest well beyond what was required by the zoning regulations and equal to that of any skyscraper in greater New York.”

The article notes that 75 Livingston was, apart from a synagogue in the Bronx that has since been demolished, Simberg’s only prominent commission. The developer, Adelman, may have chosen him because he was familiar with Simberg’s work on apartment buildings along Ocean Parkway. The praise 75 Livingston received after its completion made Simberg confident that he had a bright future. Unfortunately, the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent Great Depression quashed his hopes. Simberg never received his full fee for designing his masterpiece. He died in 1981.jacob adelman, new york times,

New York Times National Editor Sam Sifton recalled a rough-and-tumble childhood growing up on Willow Street, learning tricks like heading down Grace Court, which would trick pursuers seeking to “yoke” him into thinking he would be trapped on a dead-end street, then going over the fence and walking above the BQE to safety on Remsen Street. As the Times’ former restaurant critic, he also had memories of Heights food establishments, especially the old Queen Pizzaria on Court Street and Fascati’s, which he said was for him the defining slice. Other places he remembered fondly were China Chili (a favorite of your correspondent when he first moved to the Heights in the mid 1980s), the Promenade Restaurant, Mr. Souvlaki (“no place like it in the world” Sifton thought at age ten) and Capulets, where he said most of his St. Ann’s teachers could be found from about three in the afternoon until midnight.

He said he thought Brooklyn’s entry into the world of haute cuisine began with the opening of Patois on Smith Street, at a time when it was still a decidedly seedy area. This led to the proliferation of fine restaurants there. He sees the same thing happening in other places in the Borough. Asked where he thinks the next Smith Street will be, he said that rents will tell the story. Opening a restaurant is a particularly risky proposition, so reasonable rent is a very important consideration. This would seem to rule out Montague Street, though one audience member pointed out that what she believed would be a first class Spanish restaurant will be opening on Montague between Clinton and Henry.

Asked what he liked least about being a restaurant critic, he said it was the assigning of stars as ratings. “It’s my St. Ann’s background; what are these grades?” Asked why he had given up the position, he said that becoming National Editor at the beginning of an election year was just too exciting a prospect to turn down.

At the meeting’s opening, BHA President Jane McGroarty began by reviewing the past year, noting such accomplishments as the addition of a middle school to P.S. 8, the designation of the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District, getting improved pedestrian access at the Atlantic Avenue entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park, and winning the court cases that preserved the Tobacco Warehouse as parkland. She noted that the effort to get residential parking permits was likely to be a long one. Channel 13 personality and Remsen Street resident Tom Stewart gave community service awards to SUNY Downstate at LICH and to Deputy Inspector Mark DiPaolo, Commander of the 84th Precinct. He also presented awards for restoration excellence to Amy Klein and Jeremy Lechtzin, owners of 58 Hicks Street, and to 177 Columbia Corp., owner of 177-179 Columbia Heights. He also amused the audience with questions about Downton Abbey.

At the discussion at the end of the meeting, there were many questions about traffic issues, including cars running the stop signs at the foot of Montague Street, bicyclists riding on sidewalks and otherwise violating traffic rules, and the possible imposition of a 20 mile per hour speed limit in the Heights. D.I. DiPaolo said that getting cameras to record violations is subject to state approval, but that he would alert his officers to look for violations at the places noted. He said police were being pro-active in trying to educate cyclists about traffic rules, as well as merchants who use bycyclists for deliveries. Ms. McGroarty said that there may be ways to calm traffic at the foot of Montague other than the installation of a camera. Asked about the derelict building at the corner of Clark Street and Monroe Place, she said it has been sold to someone who intends to build a five story building on the site.

The Heights Cinema will have a home in the new building to be constructed on its site:

The Brooklyn Paper: Landlord Tom Caruana says he will save space for the beloved movie house on Henry Street when he tears down the old-timey theater and constructs a new apartment building at the site — succumbing to community pressure to keep the neighborhood icon around.

“The theater has been saved!” said proprietor Kenn Lowy, a local musician who bought the tumbledown picture palace last summer. “Now we can move forward.”

According to the Brooklyn Paper story, the new building will have space for a single screen theater in the basement, and “a lobby for art and singer-songwriters on the first floor.” The design for the five story building has not yet been finalized, so construction is not likely to start until later this year. The Cinema therefore has several months left in its present digs. Lowy will have to find temporary quarters for the Cinema to last until construction, which is expected to take about two years, is completed.

As we previously announced, the Brooklyn Heights Association will hold its annual meeting this Wednesday evening, February 22, starting at 7:30, at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, between Clinton and Court. The guest speaker will be Sam Sifton (photo), Heights native and Brooklyn resident who is now the national editor of the New York Times, having previously served as its culture and, later, food editor. He will speak about the burgeoning Brooklyn restaurant scene.

Sam was born in Brooklyn Heights, grew up on Willow Street and has spent a lifetime eating his way across the Borough, from Lundy’s to Junior’s while growing up, from Park Slope to Williamsburg today…. he knows what goes on in the kitchen and out front.

True to his roots, Sifton still lives in Brooklyn, with his wife and daughters. No one is better equipped to talk about the pleasures and challenges of Brooklyn’s tumultuous food scene.. and no one can do it with more zest.

The meeting will also feature a report by BHA President Jane McGroarty on local matters of interest, and the presentation of community service and restoration awards by Channel 13 personality and Heights resident Tom Stewart.

No doubt you’ve seen this “fading ad” on the east wall of a building on Middagh Street, facing towards Henry. The word “flats” dates it. It once meant roughly what “apartment” means now, but there is some dispute over possible distinctions.

This sign is an example of a “fading ad”, one of many painted on walls of buildings throughout Brooklyn (and other places) years ago, which are the subject of Frank Jump’s blog. Mr. Jump will present a program on “Fading Ads of Brooklyn” this Wednesday, February 15, starting at 7:00 p.m., at the Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street (corner of Clinton). Admission is $10, or $8 for BHS members. Tickets may be purchased here, or at the door. This program is part of BHS’ Inventing Brooklyn series.

The condo project at 20 Henry Street is at last hitting the marketplace after years of delays. Final polishes are taking place at the former Peaks Mason Mints building, known as the Candy Factory, with asking prices between $450,000 and $2.56 million for studios up to 4 bedrooms. The building includes 24 lofts (six of them penthouse units, at $2+ million), with an additional 14 units in an adjacent modern structure on Poplar Street scheduled to wrap by summer.

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal reminds us of the building’s history: The former industrial space was built in 1885 as the base of candy makers Mason Mints and Mason Dots. In the 1970s, it became housing for artists under the state’s Mitchell-Lama subsidized-housing program.

Artists lived in studios there until the program ended in 2004. Developers Urban Realty Partners bought the site in 2007, but weren’t able to finish a conversion to condos after the imminent financial crisis. Los Angeles-based Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund stepped in and took over the project in 2010, alongside plenty of legal drama.

When plans were first announced that the factory was slated to become a condo development, the Brooklyn Heights Assn. wanted 20 Henry’s garden to remain open space, the WSJ adds—which is now the site of the new 14-unit modern building. BHA executive director Judy Stanton says she still prefers the garden to the new building, but is glad the factory is finally ready for new homeowners: “I’m sure it will attract families.”

Brokerage firm Stribling & Associates is marketing the project, and says that 20 Henry St. already has an 800-applicant waiting list.

(Photos: Wall Street Journal)

Despite City Council approval February 1 of the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District, which designated 21 buildings along Court Street as a new landmark district, the debate continues in an Op-Ed He Said/He Said piece in the Brooklyn Courier. Commentary is offered from supporter Philip Magnuson, chair of the Brooklyn Heights Assn. Landmark Preservation Committee; and opponent Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.

Read both pieces in their entirety here, with edited highlights below…

Philip Magnuson
The Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District, with the splendid Greek Revival Borough Hall and North Plaza at its focus, is figuratively and functionally the urban center of Brooklyn, located at the civic, business, education and transportation hub of the borough. It is the interface of the vibrant neighborhoods of Metrotech, Fulton/Downtown, Court Street and Brooklyn Heights. They all share the new district as a historic core and a distinctly Brooklyn’s “Town Square.”

This historic district is on its way to cohesion and vitality. Also, like so many inner city districts now returning to robustness, it is rich with a varied, significant and potentially endangered architectural context. The assemblage of important, large-scale, early 20th century skyscrapers along Court Street, each with its own exuberant historical style, embrace a richness and scale befitting the official and commercial heart of Brooklyn. The skyscrapers play a significant role in defining the singular quality of this area.

The designation of the Court Street skyscrapers is a timely step in recollecting, acknowledging and preserving Brooklyn’s urban richness. We believe the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District will safeguard and support the present and future renaissance of this unique neighborhood.

Steven Spinola
The creation of a Downtown Brooklyn Skyscraper Historic District is unwarranted and would add burdensome costs for local property owners and retail tenants. The Real Estate Board of New York believes there is no need to create a special historic district in this area of Downtown. In fact, the report of the Landmarks Preservation Commission notes that several of these buildings have no distinctive architectural style worth protecting and have undergone numerous renovations over the decades.

More troubling, creating a special historic district would impose millions of dollars of additional costs on existing property owners and retail tenants. Once an area is landmarked, significant added costs (are) attached to property improvements; one must acquire additional city approvals and it takes longer to secure such approvals, and all improvements are subject to review.

Many require further review by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which often requires plans to be redone and certain materials to be used, which adds time and cost to any renovation. These delays often result in massive losses for retailers and landlords because space sits empty while awaiting commission approval.

The commercial office market on Court Street is already suffering with a 17% vacancy rate. The landmark designation will impose an additional tax on such space, making it more difficult to rent and provide less incentive to upgrade. This proposal will harm rather than help the properties in this district.

The beautifully historic but long-suffering Romanesque revival Offerman Building along Fulton Street Mall is at last getting the facelift it so deserves. As H&M continues its new-construction two-story glass modernist build-out next door, TJ Maxx will open a downtown Brooklyn store at 505 Fulton Street, according to signage that appeared within the last week.

Imagine Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani having presence on Fulton Street (albeit last season). This long-promised renaissance may well take hold, after all, as developer United American Land has its eye on fully developing the block at Fulton and Bridge Street, after demolishing the Offerman annex to build H&M.

Meanwhile, downtown Brooklyn’s City Point up the block continues to take shape, first comprising a four-story 50,000 sf retail building on Albee Square across from the landmarked Dime Savings Bank building. In all, that project intends to encompass 1.5 million square feet of retail and residential.

The Offerman Building’s upper floors are rumored to be going residential, so it appears a full reno is forthcoming. The handsome structure was built in 1890 by Henry Offerman, at the time one of the tallest buildings in Brooklyn. It is best known as the location of Martin’s department store, which ushered other major retailers to the area, including A.I. Namm & Son Department Store and Abraham & Straus (today, Macy’s).

Read a full history of the building on The Smoking Nun blog here.

Today the City Council approved the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District by a vote of 46-1, with two abstentions.

The Brooklyn Paper: Preservationists hailed the city for protecting a slew of Romanesque Revival and Beaux-Arts structures, including the tiered co-op 75 Livingston St., which housed some of the designation’s most vocal opponents.

“We’re thrilled,” said Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, the powerful community group that helped push for the district. “The opposition exaggerated the negatives. This is going to be good for Brooklyn as a whole and very good for Downtown and Court Street.”

According to the Brooklyn Paper story, Council Members Steve Levin and Brad Lander, both of whom voted for the designation, received assurances that proposed changes to buildings within the district would be given expedited consideration by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and that the LPC will “be flexible” with requests from residents of 75 Livingston.

The New York Daily News published a to-the-point Opinion piece titled “The Battle Of Brooklyn” condemning the proposed Brooklyn Downtown Skyscraper District, which is heading for a full City Council vote February 1. The five-paragraph story calls the bid to protect the 21 buildings “transparently nonsense.”

The piece goes on, “No one has claim to freeze New York’s ever-changing silhouette” and claims that the buildings’ “demolition and replacement would, frankly, be quite beautifying. Here is a landmark case of abusing the landmarking process.”

Despite vehement opposition from segments of the local real estate community, the downtown Brooklyn “Borough Hall Skyscraper District” is on track for approval by the New York City Council. On Tuesday, January 24, the plan offering landmark protection to 21 buildings that abut Brooklyn Heights, was given a go by the Council’s landmarks subcommittee, all but ensuring the entire Council will ratify it Feb. 1. (See BHB’s previous Jan. 19 post here.)

Key endorsements for the landmark designation—which runs along Court Street, from Montague four blocks south to Livingston—were voiced by the council’s Subcommittee on Planning, along with Councilman Stephen Levin, who represents the area.

In a joint statement with Councilman Brad Lander, who heads the subcommittee, Levin said, “After close consideration, we believe this new historic district will strengthen the character of Downtown Brooklyn, allowing for new development and growth like the new retail space planned for the Municipal Building [next to Borough Hall] while preserving the graceful, historic, early-generation skyscrapers that make it Brooklyn’s civic center.”

Lander and Levin added that they intend to ask the city to ease rules for storefronts and work with Livingston Street residents “without imposing hardships on co-operators.”

The district was first proposed to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2010 by the Brooklyn Heights Assn. and other preservation groups and since, has fostered snarky opposition from the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Brooklyn Law School, Court-Livingston-Schermerhorn Business Improvement District and similar groups.

Once again, REBNY president Steven Spinola tore the initiative to pieces in a New York Post article today: “Not only is this an inappropriate use of landmark designation, but it will end up costing the city much-needed tax revenue and jobs. This is another case of the city landmarking away its economic future.” As well, in a direct mail campaign blanketing the neighborhood, REBNY claimed, “In these economic times, when every dollar counts, landmarking threatens to send Court Street back to the ‘bad old days’ of empty storefronts and dirty streets.”

City officials refute that the designation only sets guidelines overseen by Landmarks to ensure that construction blends with the neighborhood.

Kate Briquelet’s Brooklyn Paper story quotes Brooklyn Heights Cinema owner Kenn Lowy as saying he has “received e-mails from people interested in buying the building.”

The Brooklyn Paper: “There are a lot of people who want to keep it around,” said Lowy, who hopes to find a new home for the theater if the building can’t be saved. “It makes it easier to move forward knowing we have all this support.”

The story also quotes landowner Tom Caruana’s architect (not named) as saying “plans for the site are not yet ready to be shared.” Architectural historian Francis Morrone, author of An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn, who the article says “is working with the [Brooklyn] Heights Association on an in-depth history of the building”, is quoted thus: “It’s an intact piece of history, …A major part of what makes Brooklyn Heights what it is is this historical physical fabric.”

The plans of the development company that bought 72 Poplar Street, the former NYPD building (see photo), will be considered at the meeting of the Executive Committee of Community Board 2 tomorrow (Monday, January 23) evening, starting at 6:00, at the Library Learning Center, room 515, of Long Island University, at DeKalb and Hudson Avenues.

According to the developer, as quoted by C.B.2:

Application is to extend the existing fourth floor, construct a new fifth floor addition, set back the rear wall by five feet to achieve legal light and air requirements, construct new rear façade, install new accessible ramp at Poplar Street entrance, create new window and door openings at east and west facades, and construct a one-story rooftop addition on adjacent garage.

The Real Estate Board of New York is amping its drive to derail the still-tentative landmarking of 21 buildings in downtown Brooklyn, by sending out a mailing to thousands of area residents urging them to bend City Council’s ear against the newly proposed historic district. In addition, on Friday, REBNY sent a letter to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn urging the Council to rethink the decision.

All landmarked districts require final approval from the City Council and mayor within 120 days. The Council vote is slated for Feb. 1, with two hearings scheduled next week.

Preservationists had claimed victory last September when the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved the “Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District,” a cluster of highrises built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries along Court Street and the corners of Joralemon, Remsen and Montague Streets around the already landmarked Borough Hall. Commission Chairman Robert B. Tierney noted then that “the buildings had a central role in Brooklyn’s development and illustrate an important chapter of New York City’s history.”

But a number of property owners, local landlords and developers were vehemently opposed, claiming it would drive up costs and impede retail redevelopment. Mike Slattery, SVP of the Real Estate Board of New York, sneered in September that the buildings “have little architectural and historic significance and distinction.”

In an article published in Crain’s Business New York January 18, Steve Spinola, president of REBNY, further belittled the district: “The city continues to landmark away its economic future. We want the people in the area to know landmarking will cause a lack of investment in buildings.”

Detractors argue that the designation puts a financial burden on landlords, who have to obtain additional permits and pay extra fees for any changes or upgrades on their properties. REBNY surveyed owners of roughly 750,000 square feet of space within the proposed historic district, and predicted property owners and retail tenants will incur $4.7 million in additional costs over the next several years as a result of landmark regulations and rules, according to the letter obtained by Crain’s.

“Some owners were prepared to make an investment in their buildings, but now they have a noose around their neck because it will cost them more money,” added Spinola.

Brooklyn Heights Assn. president Judy Stanton has stated that the landmark designation “is necessary to protect those buildings from being torn down—it does not prevent redevelopment. It has been a longstanding regret we did not get a district sooner.”

According to Brownstoner, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved a new design for the five story residential building to replace the Eagle at 30 Henry Street, at the corner of Middagh. NOTE: the picture on the linked Brownstoner post is of a bank building in Williamsburg, not a rendering of the new 30 Henry design. For an earlier version of the 30 Henry design, see here. There is, as yet, no rendering of the new design available. As we noted earlier, the revisions required by the LPC at its previous hearing were “minor”, so it’s safe to guess that the approved design will not differ greatly from the earlier one.

According to a BHB source the landlord of 70 Henry Street, Tom Caruana, has withdrawn his  proposal for a new structure at 70 Henry St. to Community Board 2’s Landmarks Committee.  The building currently is the home of the Brooklyn Heights Cinema, which would be displaced if the plan were to move forward.

No word yet on if this is simply a postponement or a permanent shift in plans.

DEVELOPING….

The Brooklyn Heights Association will have its annual meeting on the evening of Wednesday, February 22, starting at 7:30, at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street (between Clinton and Court). The guest speaker will be Sam Sifton, formerly food critic and now National Editor of the New York Times, who grew up in the Heights, and who will talk about “the pleasures and challenges of Brooklyn’s burgeoning restaurant scene.” There will also be reports on the BHA’s activities, and time for questions and discussion.

Linda Collins reports on the discussion at Monday’s Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing on the design of the building proposed to replace the old Eagle headquarters at 30 Henry Street, corner of Middagh, which is the first Brooklyn Heights building many people see after taking the exit from the Brooklyn Bridge (see a rendering of the proposed design here).

Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Following what one person described as “an exhilarating” discussion on the value of contextual vs. contemporary architecture in a historic district, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) yesterday asked the design team of a proposed new five-story, five-unit building at 30 Henry St. in Brooklyn Heights to consider making some additional changes.

The story notes that Brooklyn Heights preservationist Otis Pratt Pearsall and Brooklyn Heights Association President Jane McGroarty and Executive Director Judy Stanton all urged the Commission to reject the proposed design and require something contemporary and distinctive. BHA member and architect Jonathan Marvel is quoted as saying, ““We implore you to inspire, to delight, to raise the bar on originality.” But Park Slope resident and preservationist Clem Labine said the site doesn’t need a “starchitect” building that would be “dissonant and disruptive.”

The Commission’s legal counsel said it didn’t have the power to require “a particular style.”

According to Kate Briquelet’s story, the beloved Brooklyn Heights Cinema, recently rescued and revitalized by BHB Ten honoree Kenn Lowy, may be demolished to make way for (what else?) a five story residential building.

Brooklyn Paper: Next Wednesday, building owner Tom Caruana will present plans for a new structure at 70 Henry St. at Community Board 2’s Landmarks Committee — an early step in gaining city permission to demolish an edifice in the landmarked neighborhood, according to District Manager Rob Perris.

The article quotes Caruana as unwilling to reveal details of his plans, but saying he will “move forward” as soon as possible. Lowy is quoted as saying he will do whatever is necessary to keep the Cinema going, even if he has to move it to DUMBO.