Posted Oct 16, 2025, 12:29 AM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 56,624
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https://www.brownstoner.com/development/duffield-street-houses-landmark-tower-review/
Proposed DoBro Tower Would Block Neighbors' Windows, Alter Landmark Row
The plan for the 30-story glassy tower, already rejected by the local community board, is headed for Landmarks review next week.
by Cate Corcoran
10/15/2025
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A developer who bought the landmarked row in Downtown Brooklyn known as the Duffield Street Houses is proposing to build a glassy 30-story tower in the petite backyard that will swallow up the back half of the houses and obscure windows of apartments in the converted BellTel Lofts on the other side of the block.
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The developer, Watermark Capital, proposes to combine the interiors of the 19th century buildings and demolish their rear facades, according to the LPC and preservation nonprofit Historic Districts Council. At the CB2 meeting, HDC “strongly voiced our concern to CB2 and local elected officials that this precedent would suggest that every historic structure is only as meaningful as its facade, and thereby fair game to be window dressing for a tower,” the group said in an update about New York City landmarks at risk.
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A resident of the BellTel Lofts had previously told Brownstoner they were concerned a tower at 188 Duffield Street would likely block the windows of rear units.
A permit application for a new mixed-use building filed with the Department of Buildings in 2024 said the tower will have 115 apartments and cover 50 percent of the site. It will be set back 36 feet — approximately the depth of some of the landmarked houses — and measure 323.32 feet tall, with a footprint of 9,854 square feet, as Brownstoner reported at the time.
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The site previously belonged to Forest City Ratner, which moved the early 19th century houses from their original sites nearby and promised to maintain them as part of a deal to develop MetroTech.
The buildings were supposed to house offices and nonprofits but have sat empty for decades. These “important buildings” should “return to public use,” according to HDC.
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