While attention has been focused on the St. Ann’s Tobacco Warehouse saga, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation announced at a meeting yesterday that they will be issuing by the end of August a “Request For Proposal” for the hotel and residential housing buildings across from Pier 1. According to the Brooklyn Eagle:

Two buildings — the larger, northern one with hotel rooms, a restaurant, housing units and parking; the smaller, southern one with housing units and parking — will be built in a currently fallow area between the bike/walking path and Furman Street. The first, “Building A,” will be 100 feet high, and the second, “Building B,” will be 55 feet high.

The plan will contain 300 parking spaces, 170 to 225 hotel rooms, 150 to 180 housing units and 300 parking spaces. Among the criteria to be used in choosing designs are street trees, signage, sustainability and how the plan fits in with the surrounding area.

The BBPC cited the “economic recovery” as a reason to build — hotel occupancy increased from 81 percent in 2009 to 85 percent in 2010, and the average rate per room went up as well.

During the “Q&A” phase of the meeting, though, Judi Francis of the BBP Defense Fund expressed her opinion that the BBPC’s economic evaluation of the housing situation was unrealistic. “Fifty percent of the units at 360 Furman Street are still unsold”.

Also during the meeting, the BBPC board approved the licensing agreement with Jane’s Carousel. The Brooklyn Eagle described the approval as being “amid enthusiasm”, which leads me to put this question to you, our reading audience: Am I the only one who thinks Jane’s Carousel is gaudy and ugly as sin?