NEW YORK | 960 Franklin Avenue | 424 + 421 | 39 + 39 FLOORS (1.4 mil-sqft)

[chris08876]

Multi-Towered Mega-Project Revealed At 960 Franklin Avenue In Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Recent proposals to the New York City Department of City Planning could facilitate the construction of a 1.4 million square foot, mixed-use project in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. If approved, the massive plan could yield one of the community’s largest-ever developments.

The assembled parcels, referred to simply as 960 Franklin Avenue, were purchased in a partnership by Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Company and Joel Bergstein’s Lincoln Equities. Further funding for the project would be sourced from a combination of state and federal programs for affordable housing developments in addition to privately acquired capital.

Located just East of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Prospect Park, the development would include the construction of two mixed-use buildings to be completed in two distinct phases.

The first phase would begin as early as January 2021 with anticipated completion by September of that same year. If approved, building one would rise 39 stories, or about 421 feet, at the southern end of the project site. The building would comprise 705,652 square feet and contain 810 residences. A total of 405 units would let as affordable homes.

The first building would also contain 9,641 square feet of retail area and 113 parking spaces.

The second phase could begin as early as October 2021 and wrap up by April 2024. This structure would also comprise 39 stories, but top-off slightly higher at 424 feet. The building would comprise 663,662 square feet and contain 768 units. Given the total number of proposed affordable units in the entire development, it can be assumed this phase would include 381 affordable homes.

The second phase would also include 11,542 square feet of retail, 9,678 square feet dedicated to a community facility, and 67 parking spaces.

In total, approximately 50% of residential area would let as affordable housing at tiered levels of income. That percentage amounts to about 790 units out of approximately 1,590 total residences.

The development would also introduce 50,258 square feet of open space divided between public and private residential use. Of that total area, about 18,000 square feet would be available to the public during daytime hours.

On March 12th, 2019, the development team is expected to present these proposals to the public, where members of the local community will be able to voice their opinions and concerns. If deemed appropriate, the developer would alter the proposals before submitting final plans to city agencies.

It remains to be seen how the city and community members will react to the new proposals. If approved by the Department of City Planning, full completion is expected by 2024.

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NYY

[NYguy]

The NIMBYs have been fighting plans for smaller towers in the area, so they'll be out in force against this.

[chris08876]

Yeah I could see a big fight over this. The ussual "to big for the city". "Overshadowing Brownstones"... that sort of rubbish.

But its a healthy amount of affordable units. Folks are always bitchin' about prices, yet when affordable units are proposed, they shun it. Can't win, a giant catch-22.

[chris08876]

Here are new details on Bruce Eichner’s megaproject in Crown Heights

Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Company and Joel Bergstein’s Lincoln Equities are moving forward with plans for one of Crown Height’s biggest developments.

The new project, consisting of two 39-story towers at 960 Franklin Avenue, will span 1.4 million square feet and house more than 1,500 residential units, YIMBY reported. Of those units, roughly 790 would be rented as affordable.

The companies plan to construct the towers in two phases. Construction of the first building, which would have about 9,600 square feet of retail and 113 parking spaces, could start as early as January 2021, the outlet reported.

The second tower also would have retail space that would cover 11,542 square feet, plus parking and community space. The developers also plan to incorporate more than 50,200 square feet of open space into the project.

The New York City Department of Planning still has to approve the proposal, which will be presented to the public on March 12.

Eichner’s and Bergstein’s firms partnered together to buy the four parcels for the site at 960 Franklin Avenue, in 2017. At the time, the plans called for four buildings and Eichner said the project would cost more than $500 million. The developers paid $33 million for at least two of the lots, at 962 and 972 Franklin Avenue. It was not immediately clear if they also closed on two parcels at 124 and 130 Montgomery Streets.

Fortress Investment Group provided $35.4 million to the developers to buy the site and finance its rezoning.

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TRD

[chris08876]

Crown Heights megaproject could bring 800 affordable apartments to Brooklyn

A large and underutilized site near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden could sprout two 39-story towers with a massive affordable housing component if developers Continuum Companies and Lincoln Equities are granted the various city variances they’re seeking.

The development project, which takes the address of 960 Franklin Avenue but spans a 120,000 square foot site bound by Franklin Avenue, Montgomery Street, Mary Pinkett Avenue, and Sullivan Place, is currently seeking zoning amendments with the Department of City Planning that would allow the developers to increase the site’s density and build a mixed-use project with 1,578 apartments, of which a whopping 50 percent would be affordable.

The 1.4 million-square-foot development would not only be one of the largest in the area, but would also constitute a major advancement of affordable housing in Brooklyn. The developers are seeking to mandate the site as a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area, where 30 percent, or 473, of the total apartments would be created as permanently affordable housing.

The Draft Scope of Work on file with the city notes that 60 percent of the affordable apartments would be earmarked for extremely low-income, very low-income, and low-income New Yorkers making less than 80 percent of the area median income annually. (For a family of one, that’s $58,480 or less, for two it’s $66,800 or less, and for three it’s $75,120 or less. A larger list of AMI figures can be viewed here.)

Of the remaining affordable apartments, 20 percent (or 158) would be set aside for New Yorkers making 100 percent of AMI and 20 percent (also 158) would go to New Yorkers making 120 percent of AMI. The developers are seeking to waive some of the site’s parking requirements in order to build the quantity affordable housing.

If the appropriate variances aren’t granted to the developers, any affordable apartments would likely come under the city’s new 421-a program, Affordable New York, which would mandate that just 20 percent of units are set aside for New Yorkers making 130 percent or less of AMI.

The development’s remaining 789 apartments would be market rate. Though the developers are far from sussing out specific pricing for the apartments, the Draft Scope of Work indicates that the estimated pricing for the apartments will fall around $50 per square foot, short of the estimated $65 per square foot cost of forthcoming new development in Brooklyn.

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CBNY

[chris08876]

Draft Scope of Work for an Environmental Impact Statement: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning...scope-work.pdf

[Busy Bee]

This is a really great project all around. I hope they get all of it approved as is.

[NYguy]

http://gothamist.com/2019/02/21/crow...nt_shadows.php

'Monster' Crown Heights Development Reignites Fears Of Shadows Over Brooklyn Botanic Garden

BY ELIZABETH KIM
FEB 21, 2019

Earlier this month, Continuum Company and Lincoln Equities filed applications with the city Department of Planning for zoning amendments that would allow them to build a 1.4 million square feet development containing 1,578 units of housing, half of which would be affordable, at 960 Franklin Avenue. One tower would rise to 421 feet, while the other would top off at 424 feet.

The Garden and community activists have long been expecting the developers to roll out a mega-project. As early as 2017, Eichner had talked about building a complex of four buildings between 20 and 30 stories on the site.

Buildings on that particular block are currently not permitted to be greater than 80 feet, or seven stories in height, according to Reina-Longoria.

Alicia Boyd, one of the founders of Movement to Protect the People, a grassroots organization which has fought the spread of large developments in the neighborhood, called the project a "monster."

"This is a neighborhood where we have an average of four-stories," she said. "This is an unprecedented leap that this developer is taking."

In June, Boyd’s group commissioned a shadow analysis that showed that a 441-foot building, slightly taller than what the developers have planned, would cast shadows on portions of the Botanic Garden for significant durations of time in the morning and afternoon.

Should the 960 Franklin Avenue plan be approved, it would be one of the largest residential complexes in Crown Heights, a neighborhood that has faced increasing development pressures. Amenity-laden rental buildings have been popping up in recent years, with brokers attributing the growth to developers trying to lure the Williamsburg crowd in advance of the now-canceled L-train shutdown. The monthly median asking rent in January was $2,400, up 4.3 percent over last year, according to Streeteasy.

Continuum would not be the sole developer to capitalize on a development site near the Garden. In December, the City Council approved a rezoning that will allow developers Cornell Realty Management and Carmel Partners to erect two 16-story rental towers near Franklin Avenue at 40 Crown Street and 931 Carroll Street. The project, which will sit across the street from the proposed 960 Franklin Avenue plan, will be comprised of 518 rentals, 140 of which would be below-market-rate. As part of a last-minute deal with Crown Heights’ City Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, the developers agreed to give a roughly 1,000-square-foot parcel of land to an affordable housing developer, who will build 118 units on the site.

In a move that raised eyebrows among some Garden members, officials at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens elected to not take a position on the Cornell project, saying that it was farther away and would have less impact on its green space.

[Busy Bee]

[chris08876]

Green death: Proposed Franklin Ave. towers would kill half of Bklyn Botanic’s plants within a decade, expert claims

Shadows cast by a proposed 39-story development in Crown Heights would destroy half of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s collection of rare and exotic plants within 10 years, according to one of the horticultural museum’s chief green thumbs, who urged members of the City Planning Commission to seriously consider the project’s shadow impact.

“The rezoning proposal would cause serious, tangible damage to the gardens,” Rowan Blaik, director of living collections at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, said during a Tuesday public-scoping meeting about the development.

Developer Continuum Company is seeking permission to rezone the property at 960 Franklin Ave., the site of an old spice factory, to pave the way for two 39-story mixed-use towers, which together would host a whopping 1,578 residential units split evenly between luxury and below-market-rate housing.

Garden honchos have for months claimed that the development will bathe the green space in as many as three hours of additional darkness per day. And Blaik stressed the effect those shadows would have on critical growing facilities located within the green space, which house a stunning 18,500 plants — including 150 endangered species — and are necessary to breed replacements for the approximately five percent of plants that die off naturally around the garden every year.

“These propagation and growing facilities are the heart of the garden,” said Blaik.

And because the garden’s grow houses heavily depend on sunlight to function, compromising their ability to soak up rays could result in a rapid, catastrophic loss of plant life, according to Blaik, who said that importing new plants — which could carry pests and diseases — to replace dead ones is not an option.

“Should we lose propagation growing facilities, more than half of our collection will be gone in a decade,” he said. “There are simply no commercial alternatives to on-site propagation facilities for botanic gardens.”

A spokeswoman for the builder, however, insisted that although it has yet to complete a full environmental-impact study of the project, early analysis shows that the development’s impact on the garden would be negligible, citing research conducted by Continuum’s own environmental experts.

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https://www.brooklynpaper.com/storie...-03-15-bk.html

[RobEss]

Originally Posted by chris08876

...early analysis shows that the development’s impact on the garden would be negligible, citing research conducted by Continuum’s own environmental experts.

Lol, this should be illegal. I'm not usually one to give shadow complaints much credence, but this one - it's not looking good, folks.

[steyin]

Another big issue they are claiming are how these towers will effect the migratory flight paths/patterns of some birds.

[chris08876]

Prospect Park tower shadows would have ‘significant adverse impact’ on Botanic Gardens

A pair of 39-story apartment towers proposed for the Prospect Park area could spell doom for the flowers at the nearby Brooklyn Botanic Garden thanks to their massive shadows, a newly revealed Parks Department memo determined.

Two months after the memo was sent, however, Mayor Bill de Blasio seemed to downplay concerns that the flora at the garden would wilt in the shade of the buildings, which are slated for 960 Franklin Ave.

“I don’t think it ruins the garden forever. I just don’t. I don’t take that position,” de Blasio said during a Feb. 7 appearance on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show,” when asked about the development.

“I would love it if we could have a city that could be a city for everyone and affordable and we could keep some of the exact scale and aesthetics we had previously,” he added. “I would love it if we could achieve those things, but we’re in this new world.”

City Hall said Tuesday that de Blasio confused the development backed by Ian Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Co. and Lincoln Equities with another major development in quickly gentrifying Prospect-Lefferts Garden — and was not briefed on the memo before appearing on Lehrer’s program.

That project plans to build three 17-story towers at 931 Carroll St., 40 Crown St. and 54 Crown St, just north of the Eichner’s proposed development. Critics have claimed those three buildings will also cast shadows that could threaten the garden.

The memo is set to re-energize longstanding criticism of both projects, fueled by worries about the garden and mounting anger over shifting neighborhood demographics.

“The proposed project would potentially lead to a significant adverse impact to natural resources, specifically to natural resources found in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), due to the project-generated shadows,” the Parks Department wrote in the 13-page December memorandum, which was first obtained by The Brooklyn Paper.


[...]


Plans filed with the city’s Planning Department show the development would include 1,578 apartments, half of which would be covered by rent stabilization and would have their rents capped based on tenant incomes.

Nearly a quarter — 473 — would be set aside for New Yorkers making less than 80 percent of the average wage. That means a family of three making $76,880 a year would pay $1,862 a month for a two-bedroom unit in the complex, under current income limits set by the Housing and Preservation Department.

It would replace a low-slung spice factory that has occupied that strip of Franklin Avenue for decades.

Representatives for the neighborhood’s lawmaker, Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo (D-Brooklyn), did not return a request for comment.

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NYPost

[NYguy]

https://www.brooklynpaper.com/ulurp-...garden-towers/

LONG-SHOT LAND USE PROCESS BEGINS FOR CONTROVERSIAL GARDEN-ADJACENT TOWERS


By Ben Verde
February 1, 2021

City planning bigwigs formally kicked off the lengthy rezoning process of 960 Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights on Monday, starting the clock on a developer’s long-shot bid to erect a massive residential tower just 150 feet from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden — but the proposal was quickly met with fierce opposition from local stakeholders, City Hall, and the City Planning Commission.

“Simply put, the project applicant is seeking way too much density for this site,” said City Planning Commission Chair Marisa Lago during a Feb. 1 meeting of the commission. “Leading to an overbearing envelope with no precedent and a development that is grossly out of scale with the surrounding context.”

While the rezoning proposal was certified during the virtual hearing, allowing the six-to-eight month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure to begin, the commissioners made clear that they did not support the plan — and they would use their advisory position to recommend that the proposal not go forward.

Commissioners cited data from the proposal’s Environmental Impact Statement that shows that the 421-foot towers, which the rezoning would allow construction of, would cloak parts of the nearby Botanic Garden in shadow for several hours each day year-round — potentially devastating the flower emporium’s plant life.

“I have never seen an environmental impact statement with such a stark, scary description of the open-space impacts here,” said Commissioner Anna Hayes Levin.

Monday’s certification sets off the city’s lengthy ULURP, with the proposal now subject to numerous public meetings involving local Community Board 9, Borough President Eric Adams, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the City Council.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which sits a stones-throw from the project site, has rallied against the mega-project since details of the towers first emerged, and launched its “Fight for Sunlight” awareness campaign in 2019.

Garden leadership condemned the plan’s certification on Monday, calling the plan “ill-conceived” and a “slap in the face.”

“The entire ill-conceived, vastly out of scale project is an existential threat to Brooklyn Botanic Garden and its century-old living museum of plants,” said Brooklyn Botanic Garden President Adrian Benepe in a statement. “The project itself, and the developer’s insistence on pressing forward despite widespread opposition at all levels, is a slap in the face to the people of Brooklyn and New York City.”

The mayor, whose rubber stamp is essential for land-use changes to pass, came out in opposition to the multi-tower project in December, telling Gothamist he felt the project was “grossly out of scale with the neighborhood” — a move that came months after internal Parks Department documents showed that the city was aware of the potential damage to the adjacent garden.

The proposal has only been slightly modified since then, knocking the height of the tallest towers down from 39 stories to 34 stories.

Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, who holds significant power over the rezoning as the area’s representative, along with Council Speaker Corey Johnson, released a joint statement condemning the plan, and blasted Continuum for their attempts to push the rezoning through despite communal opposition.

The site, a former spice factory on Franklin Avenue near Montgomery Street, is within blocks of the 341-foot-tall Tivoli Towers and the 25-story Ebbet’s Field Apartments. The proposal certified Monday would allow Continuum to build towers that dwarf both of those buildings.

Members of the City Planning Commission said the mountain of evidence that shows the towers would be devastating to the Botanic Garden were enough to disqualify the project, but that they would formally start the Uniform Land Use Review Process to allow the public to weigh in.

“This should just be a non-starter, but the point of the ULURP process is to let the public tell us what we think before we say what we think, so this is going to be a robust public process,” said Levin.

[NYguy]

I have to say one thing about this proposal. Whether you like it or not, the developers do have the right to go through the approvals process. It's not up to City Planning officials to trash a development before it goes through the approvals process, they can do that when the time comes. That's what the process is for. The Council of course will play their own politics.



https://therealdeal.com/2021/02/02/c...otanic-garden/

Council speaker, member trash Eichner project near Botanic Garden
Unusual move follows Mayor de Blasio’s opposition, certification by planning agency





February 02, 2021
By Keith Larsen

City Council leaders just put another nail in the coffin of Bruce Eichner’s big Crown Heights project.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Crown Heights Council member Laurie Cumbo issued a joint statement denouncing the rezoning Eichner requested to build his two 35-story tower project at 960 Franklin Avenue.

At the crux of the issue are concerns that the apartment towers’ shadows would damage horticulture at the Botanic Garden, Brooklyn’s top tourist attraction.

“The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a priceless public asset that must be preserved for generations to come and we will not support any proposal that will harm the Garden,” the joint statement said.

The announcement came just after the City Planning Commission voted on Monday to certify the rezoning proposal, which is not an approval but starts the seven-month public review that leads to a City Planning Commission vote, a Council vote and a mayoral sign-off.

Development proposals often face opposition at the outset of the process and are altered substantially during negotiations. But the early objections to Eichner’s Continuum project have been unusual: Not only did the Council speaker savage it, but last month Mayor Bill De Blasio came out against it.

The backlash raises the possibility that the elected officials will demand height reductions so severe as to make the project uneconomical, given Eichner’s plan to make half of its apartments affordable.

Eichner has expressed a willingness to go back to the drawing board. But withdrawing the application would compel him to start from scratch, costing the project substantial time and money.

De Blasio’s opposition to the development shocked opponents and supporters alike, as de Blasio had endorsed the project in February 2020 when a critic of it called him on Brian Lehrer’s radio show. Although his office later said he was confusing the project with another one nearby, his sentiments about housing affordability being more important than shadows seemed to bode well for Eichner.

“I don’t think it ruins the garden forever. I just don’t. I don’t take that position,” the mayor said at the time. “I would love it if we could have a city that could be a city for everyone and affordable and we could keep some of the exact scale and aesthetics we had previously. I would love it if we could achieve those things, but we’re in this new world.”

But in a later statement, de Blasio said the project was “grossly out of scale with the neighborhood” and would inhibit plant growth at the garden.

Eichner had said the project would have helped reduce the city’s need for affordable housing. About half of the 1,578 units of housing would be below market rate, according to the developer.

The mayor’s reversal was also a blow to unions, who were in line to build, finance and work in the project.

De Blasio said that the Franklin Avenue development “would harm the research and educational work carried out by one of this city’s prized cultural institutions.”

[chris08876]

Public Review Procedure Launches For 960 Franklin Avenue Towers In Crown Heights, Brooklyn

The Department of City Planning has officially launched the requisite public review process for 960 Franklin Avenue, a contentious high-rise development in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The proposal includes two 39-story buildings flanked by several additional volumes ranging from 16 to 20 stories.

Developers behind the proposals include Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Company and Lincoln Equities Group of Rutherford, NJ. Before the project can break ground, the developers would need to acquire special zoning permits to allow for greater residential density, overall height, and a waiver of typical parking requirements for a development of this scale.

Existing proposals specify the construction of 1,578 apartments including around 780 income restricted and affordable units for medium- to extremely low-income households, over 20,000 square feet of retail space, and 9,678 square feet of unspecified community facilities. The development would also include two separate parking garages. The entire development would comprise just under 1.4 million square feet.

In letters dated December 4 and 20, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission indicated that the development site does not have archaeological significance and that the commission “did not have interest in preserving the on-site buildings” that will be demolished if the project is allowed to proceed.

Leading arguments against the development cite the anticipated shadows that would extend over a sizable portion of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Located just 200 feet away from the historic gardens, shadows from the proposed development are anticipated to affect a total of 23 greenhouses and nurseries. Mayor Bill de Blasio recently flip-flopped against the development after initially commenting that he felt the project posed no serious detriment to the Botanic Gardens.

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NYY

[chris08876]

Bruce Eichner out of Crown Heights project; owner to go it alone

A Crown Heights spice importer has filed plans for a residential development on the same land near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Company spent years trying to build a much larger one.

The new filing for 960 Franklin Avenue, from Zev Golombeck, calls for six stories and 293 apartments. It’s one-fifth as many homes as the 1,500 that Continuum and Lincoln Equities filed to build in 2020 in two 39-story towers spanning 1.4 million square feet.


The reduction will spare the project from the rezoning drama that doomed Eichner’s plans.

Since 1991, the site has been zoned so that no development on it can rise higher than 70 feet. When Eichner applied for new zoning to build his towers, locals raised hell because they would send shadows rolling over the Botanic Garden across the street.

In a rare intervention, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio came out against the project in the middle of the public review session. Continuum rallied union support, briefly hired a strategic communications firm and floated a smaller version of its project, but that too was shot down.

Reached by phone, Golombeck said Continuum is not involved in the new project, though he would not clarify if he has another development partner. “I really don’t want to get into this discussion,” Golombeck said.

He won’t have to, given that he needs only financing and building permits, not new zoning. It also means Franklin Avenue will get far fewer affordable units than Eichner was offering.

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TRD

[chris08876]

^^^^

Let the record show that this is a victory for the NIMBY hordes. Very unfortunate. Sometimes they get victories, like in Harlem, in which the One45 developer gave the middle finger and said no affordable units at all and just pulled out. At least some units will rise at 960 Franklin but it is a NIMBY victory; not allowing for real potential at the site.

In a city needs housing, these scumbags always have to ruin good potential. Oh well...

[MAC123]

"It also means Franklin Avenue will get far fewer affordable units than Eichner was offering."

[Busy Bee]

I had concerns regarding shadows as well but this could have been reworked with lower heights. This is nearly as embarrassing as the 145th St project.