[Hypothalamus]

Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Work begins on glam hotel near Barclays Center

By Lore Croghan
May 7, 2014 - 2:00pm


The hotel site, which is under the shroud, is in good company. To its right, there's the Theatre for a New Audience with residential towers beyond it. Photo by Lore Croghan

Work is starting as we speak on the glam hotel that will be Shakespeare's next-door neighbor.

The city Buildings Department issued a demolition permit in late April for the small commercial building at 95 Rockwell Place – which will be mostly torn down and replaced with an eye-popping high-end boutique hotel designed by high-profile architect Thomas Leeser.

After the demolition, “rubble walls” on the sides of the building will be left standing, said Steve Pfister of Second Development Services (SDS), one of the firms partnering on the hotel.

City Finance Department records indicate it will be a Marriott Autograph Collection property, as we previously reported.

It will be directly adjacent to the Shakespeare-centric Theatre for a New Audience, which opened in November to wide acclaim – and three blocks away from Barclays Center.

“This is one of the artsier projects we've done,” Pfister said.

“They're calling this the Lincoln Center of Brooklyn,” he said of the BAM Cultural District where the hotel is going to be located. “It's exciting to be a part of it.”

When we caught up with him the other day, Pfister, who is a construction supervisor for the project, was overseeing garbage removal at the building that had been going on for days.