NEW YORK | Citypoint (Phase 2) | FT | 19 & 30 FLOORS

[Obey]

^^^ Don't say that in Brooklyn

[NYguy]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brook...wn_off_skyscraper_bKzSN6ZQyL2FFaxQ4fVWKN

Kruger crony thrown off B'klyn skyscraper plan

By RICH CALDER
March 22, 2011

A New York developer nabbed in the sweeping federal corruption probe that snared state Sen. Carl Kruger earlier this month has been quietly cut out of one of Brooklyn's biggest projects, which was slated to bring the borough its tallest building, The Post has learned.

Aaron Malinsky's PA Associates had been partnering in City Point, a mixed-use project slated to rise as high as 65 stories at the city-owned former Albee Square Mall site in Downtown Brooklyn.

But Acadia Realty Trust confirmed yesterday that it has used its powers as majority partner to remove Malinsky "from all operational involvement" in City Point.

Although Acadia spokesman Rick Matthews said Malinsky's financial interest in the project "has not yet been unwound," other sources close to the project said they expect PA Associates to agree to a buyout with Acadia so City Point can smoothly move forward.

It's the second time in the past week that Malinsky was booted from a major city project following the corruption charges. A city entity overseeing the Brooklyn Navy Yard fired Malinsky as its developer for an on-site $60 million ShopRite supermarket.

In a March 11 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Acadia said it would cooperate in the federal probe but reported "no knowledge of any improper or illegal activities" related to City Point and other projects over which it has partnered with Malinsky. The company also said it "certainly would never have tolerated anything improper being done" in relation to these projects.

City Point, a long-stalled $750 million residential and commercial space project, was hit hard by the national credit crunch and broke ground only last year after receiving a $20 million stimulus bailout from the federal government.

The first of City Point's three phases -- 50,000 square feet of new retail -- is scheduled to be completed next year, and both the city and Acadia said they still expect the first phase to remain on track without delays. The timeline for the rest of the project, however, remains unclear.

Kruger (D-Brooklyn) and Malinsky were among eight men arrested March 10 in a government "pay-to-play" corruption scandal that allegedly netted Kruger more than $1 million in bribes over the past five years in exchange for political favors.

The feds say Malinsky funneled $472,500 in bribe money to Kruger through a shell company set up by Kruger's lover and alleged accomplice, Michael Turano. In exchange, the feds say, Kruger assisted Malinsky in getting approvals to develop the $65 million Canarsie Plaza Shopping Center on city property and Kruger tried to get developer Forest City Ratner to give Malinsky a piece of a retail center Ratner is building on city land in Mill Basin.

Kruger even arranged a meeting with Forest City officials and Malinsky, the complaint says.

Calls left at Malinsky's office were not returned.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

Win!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

The tower will be built, i passed by the site today and it had advertisements about the tower with renderings.

[babybackribs2314]

I found this rendering of the tower on Gowanus Lounge, just Googling... looks very impressive here. While somewhat mundane, the design will go far in equalizing the Brooklyn and Jersey City skylines, which have been rather lopsided since the Goldman Sachs tower was built in JC.



http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2008/01/citypoint-tower-65-stories-on-flatbush.html

[Roadcruiser1]

It looks a lot like the City Tech Tower. That proposal was shot down.

[yankeesfan1000]

Originally Posted by babybackribs2314

...While somewhat mundane, the design will go far in equalizing the Brooklyn and Jersey City skylines, which have been rather lopsided since the Goldman Sachs tower was built in JC.

Totally agree. Brooklyn could see a really nice little skyscraper boom with this and the Altantic Yards towers, with the first one set to break ground relatively soon if I recall correctly.

[NYguy]

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/01/city-points-shiny-new-facade-now-on-display/?stream=true

City Point’s Shiny New Facade Now on Display

The first phase of City Point, the big retail development on the Fulton Mall, is scheduled to open in the spring, and we now have a good sense of how the exterior of the building is going to look. The siding that’s been put on the building is quite a bit shinier than the renderings indicated (click through to see one). There’s still no word on whether an anchor tenant has been secured for the project. This phase of City Point is 50,000 square feet, which is only a tenth as big as the second phase is supposed to be.

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2012/01/whos-mal...we-left-pittsburgh-behind-to-begin-with/

Whose Mall Is It Anyway: Will Brooklyn Flock to Fulton Street’s New Chain Stores?
Isn't That Why We Left Pittsburgh Behind to Begin With?


Comings and goings across from Shake Shack. (Matt Chaban)



CityPoint takes shape


By Matt Chaban
Jan 11, 2012

Like generations of Brooklynites before him, Joseph had come to the Fulton Mall to do some shopping. Some historians credit the centuries old strip with pioneering urban department store shopping, with the opening of Abraham & Weschler in 1865 and the many stores that followed, all now long gone but for the Neo-Grec and Beaux Arts temples to retail they erected.

When he arrived on the mall this day, Joseph had passed by the T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T and MetroPCS outlets and come here for his new-enough phone. “They don’t want so much here,” Joseph said, a Dodgers cap—L.A., not Brooklyn—resting on his head. “It’s a good deal.” But for how much longer? It is getting to be that they want more and more on the Fulton Mall. Just like the rest of Brooklyn before it.

H&M is scheduled for a new glass building on the corner of Hoyt Street being built by Mr. Laboz, below which will be a TJ Maxx. Aeropostale opened across the street in the fall of 2010, around the same time the new Shake Shack was announced, which opened in December, a month after the Gap announced plans to take space on the mall. Express is coming, too. The gleaming new first phase of CityPoint will open in the first half of next year, quite possibly with a Target inside, so successful is the one half-a-mile away at Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Center Mall.

Yet, venture inside that mall, and it is largely devoid—except for the aisles of Target—of the kind of clientele Mr. Laboz and his cohort talk of attracting. It remains to be seen whether the brownstone babies and their cousins in the condo towers will ever migrate to the mall, giving up on Bird, Greenlight Books or the newly arrived Barney’s Co-op.

Part of the problem with developers, politicians and the media talking about the transformation or revitalization of Fulton Street is that it suggests there was something wrong in the first place. Unlike Smith Street or Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, which were largely empty, the Fulton Mall has always been packed. With its 110,000 patrons a day, it is the third busiest retail strip in the city, besting Madison Avenue and behind only Fifth and Times Square.

...a pack of screaming teenagers could be heard from a few blocks away. At least a hundred of them were packed around a pair of men, there was shouting, it seemed perhaps a fight. It turned out to be the rapper Drake, who stopped into Quick Strike, one of the strips remaining hat-and-shoe outlets. He picked up a Toronto Blue Jays cap, representing his hometown team. Even in Canada, they know the Fulton Mall. Would Drake really have come to shop at Lids down the block?

Lauri Cumbo, a Fort Greene fixture who founded the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, argues that the loss of the mom and pops is bad, but worse is the erosion of the mall’s culture. She points out that while the Bronx may have been the birthplace of hip hop, the Fulton Mall is where it grew up, with Biz Marquee and Biggie Smalls rapping on the corner. “The way things are going, entrepreneurship will be smothered all together,” she said. “There will be no room for creativity or originality. People may still shop here, but there will be no community.”

[blueskylover]

Any updates about the building?
The project is still going on? I read somewhere that the builder submitted modification/change approval to the city...

Thanks guys all the info here!

[NYguy]

The rest of the project is still in development...

http://citypointbrooklyn.com/

Phase 1



Phase 1 is under construction and will be ready for occupancy in spring 2012. The four-story, 50,000 square foot building with an adjacent public plaza on the site of the former Albee Square Mall at Fulton Street (Brooklyn’s busiest shopping street), affords marquee retailers the opportunity to promote their brand(s) to nearly half a million buyers with an average income of $75,000+.

Planning and design are currently underway for two additional phases of the City Point project that will seamlessly connect to the first retail phase. At completion, the entire project will consist of 550,000 square feet of retail.


Phase 2



With an expected completion in 2014, Phase 2 of the City Point project consists of 500,000 square feet of retail and 500,000 square feet of residential space. Phase 2 will serve as an extension of Phase I between Fulton and Flatbush Avenues


Phase 3



Phase 3 will add another tower to the growing Brooklyn skyline. The planned residential tower will include 665,000 square feet of residential real estate to accommodate the growing need for housing in the Downtown Brooklyn enclave.






There was a thread for the skyscraper, but we haven't recreated it because the project has since changed.

[J. Will]

Contrary to what the article says, the first phase will obviously not have a Target store.

[NYguy]

Location pics from the brochure...

[RobertWalpole]

Do you remember this sign


from this show?



If not, enjoy this great video of a classic show!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qy5LEeFHig

[philvia]

For such a large project, I wish it had a better transportation component to it. The dekalb subway station adjacent to the site could use better access / general improvement.

[dchan]

It just seems so "Brooklyn" for Brooklynites to create a graphic proclaiming that they're the 4th biggest city in the U.S. It's also very "Brooklyn" to conveniently leave out the fact that by that measure, Queens would be considered the 5th largest city in the U.S., not Houston.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by dchan

It just seems so "Brooklyn" for Brooklynites to create a graphic proclaiming that they're the 4th biggest city in the U.S. It's also very "Brooklyn" to conveniently leave out the fact that by that measure, Queens would be considered the 5th largest city in the U.S., not Houston.

I presume they are leaving Queens with the rest of the City, which would have it's population shift to about 5.7 million. As a matter of fact, if you broke up all 5 boros, Brooklyn would actually be 3rd largest city, they could have made that case as well. But the point they are trying to make is that the development is still in the heart of everything.

I do remember that show, and I also recall a similar sign coming back to Brooklyn.

Originally Posted by philvia

For such a large project, I wish it had a better transportation component to it. The dekalb subway station adjacent to the site could use better access / general improvement.

Transportation to the site isn't really an issue. I used to work in the area, both on Fulton and at Metrotech. It's really just a matter of which train you would like to take. Many people who work in the area take the LIRR as well.

[dchan]

^ Well, they left NYC's population at 8 million plus in the graphic, which is (a) either a confusing oversight from the graphic's designer, or (b) just another half-assed "Brooklyn" attempt to separate Kings Borough as another city, different from the rest of NYC. I'm probably just talking out of my —, but whenever I hear Marty Markowitz utter anything, or whenever I see that "Welcome to Brooklyn...Name It...We Got It" signs crossing the Williamsburg Bridge, that's just the vibe I get.

And I agree with you on the transportation. I'm not sure what philvia is getting at. Downtown Brooklyn and vicinity is pretty much the nexus point of all subway lines coming into Brooklyn from Lower Manhattan.

[Zapatan]

That's measuring cities by the downtown area though, not the Urban area, Los Angeles has something like 14 million people and Chicago about 10 million and NYC more than 20 million, but still impressive none the less.


But anyway enough about that, great for BKN to get a new tallest, about how tall would these buildings be?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

That's measuring cities by the downtown area though, not the Urban area

They are measuring cities by the way we measure them - population. The point is not to create a city vs city discussion, but to show that Citypoint will be in the heart of Brooklyn, which on it's own could be 3rd or 4th largest city in the U.S. It's to stress that the development isn't in some out of the way area, and they have a point.



http://www.observer.com/2012/01/discounts-galore-century-21-may-bring-bargains-to-fulton-mall/

Discounts Galore! Century 21 May Bring Bargains to Fulton Mall



By Matt Chaban
Jan 18, 2012

According to the Post, the discount dandies are poised to sign a 100,000-square-foot lease for the upper floors of the soon-to-open City Point mall under construction on the old Albee Square Mall site. That’s twice the size of the on-target Target, which is technically not official but that everyone has been talking about for years.

The move makes sense, this being the third busiest retail strip in the city, better than Madison Avenue or the company’s downtown location. The company has been expanding at a healthy clip, almost doubling its downtown store and opening another near Lincoln Center last year. There is one in Brooklyn already, out in Bay Ridge.

__________________________________________



http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/re...PvPsIXlWxaMHlriZ9L?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

January 17, 2012

Fashion discounter Century 21 may be taking over the top of the new CityPoint project on Fulton Street in Brooklyn with a dramatic 100,000-square-foot spread.

The project is being developed by Arcadia Development, which already has a signed deal with Target to occupy about 50,000 square feet. According to sources, a lease has been sent to Century 21, which had been pounding availabilities in the neighborhood.

Last year, Century 21 signed an expansion plan for its flagship store opposite the World Trade Center that will grow it to about 200,000 square feet. It also took over a 61,000-square-foot former Barnes & Noble space on the Upper West Side.

Site of the tallest tower shown on the left...

Jay Liquori