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Old Posted Apr 4, 2017, 9:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vandelay View Post
Downtown Brooklyn's architecture is creeping slowly out of the bargain basement. Still an uninspired design, but better than the garbage of the past decade.
I agree with that also. The design is not something to make me jump out of my seat, but the development as a whole is something to be excited about. The maturing of the area into something it should have been all along is exciting to see. I do like the twist of the tallest tower, which is what grabs the eye when you look at it.



http://www.politico.com/states/new-y...rooklyn-110965

Massive, mixed-use development planned for Downtown Brooklyn
Schools, housing, retail and office space, cultural center proposed


By SALLY GOLDENBERG
04/03/17


Quote:
A massive, mixed-use project that would reshape the Brooklyn skyline is being proposed along Flatbush Avenue, adjacent to Atlantic Terminal.

Brooklyn-based Alloy Development plans to build two new schools, 900 housing units, 200,000 square feet of Class A office space, 40,000 square feet of retail and a 15,000 square-foot cultural center. If the project is approved as proposed, one of the residential towers on the 61,400-square-foot site would stand at 920 feet, making it one of the tallest in the borough.

The project, known as 80 Flatbush, was unveiled to reporters Monday afternoon ahead of a public meeting at Brooklyn Borough Hall, where City Councilman Steve Levin and a group he convened were being briefed on the plans. The developer will need Levin's support to rezone the site.

Levin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alloy's proposal sprung from a city request seeking plans to redevelop the Khalil Gibran International Academy on Schermerhorn Street.

Recognizing an opportunity to do more than just rehabilitate an aging school building, the company bought up surrounding sites as it drew up a far more dramatic blueprint for the area.

The school would be replaced by a more modern building that could hold 350 students, more than the 260 or so who attend Khalil Gibran, Alloy representatives said. A second elementary school on State Street would house another 350 students. Both are expected to be in operation by 2022, assuming the lengthy approval process for the rezoning gets underway this fall as planned.

Alloy CEO Jared Della Valle said the existing buildings housing Khalil Gibran students were built in the late 1800s and do not have a gymnasium or auditorium.

"It's so important that KGIA (Khalil Gibran International Academy) has the facilities that it needs for students to thrive, and we're deeply appreciative that this project will provide that," Rawaa Nancy Albilal, president and CEO of the Arab American Family Support Center, said in a statement released by Alloy.

The housing units would be rented to tenants earning a range of incomes: 700 would be rented at market-rate and 200 would be restricted to those earning, on average, 60 percent of the area median income, Della Valle said. He said he does not expect to receive any city subsidy for the rent-restricted units, but is banking on the revival of the 421-a property tax break.

The Educational Construction Fund, an arm of the city's Department of Education, is the applicant for the project.

"We remain dedicated to identifying opportunities to support aging schools and helping to create additional capacity for New York City public school students without using capital dollars," Jennifer Maldonado, executive director of the fund, said in a statement.


Alloy would not release the project's overall price tag, but Della Valle said the schools would cost about $100 million.

The city would turn over the portion of the site it owns to the developer in a 99-year ground lease, and Alloy would pay rent and other tax-equivalent fees to the city to support bonds for the construction of the schools. Della Valle did not disclose the amount in rent or other payments, saying he is "under a confidential agreement with the city."

The project would appear to meet a number of community needs, though nearly every major rezoning in the city is met with some measure of community resistance.

"There's always anxiety about development and change and all those things, but our feeling is, if every public project came with a public school or a hospital or some other need, we wouldn't be talking about that," Della Valle said. "If not here, where? It's not like we're in the middle of nowhere. We're at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic."



Letter from Alloy:








The Plan:







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