In a move that's nearly unprecedented these days, a residential tower slated to rise in Downtown Brooklyn will instead give way to office space. The tower to come at 420 Albee Square, a site bound by Gold and Duffield streets and Willoughby and Fulton streets, was announced on Monday by NYCEDC Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen with JEMB Realty. According to the Brooklyn Eagle (and a few other sources), the tower will rise 40 stories and 600 feet, making it the second tallest building in the borough only behind the 1,000-foot residential tower that developer JDS is plotting just a few blocks away. The tower will bring 400,000 square feet of office space to the area, nd will be accompanied by commercial space, parking, and green space. The project will be the first ground-up commercial development since the area's 2004 rezoning.
According to the Post, NYCEDC agreed to sell 120,000 square feet of air rights to developer JEMB in order to ensure that the development would be commercial rather than residential. Initial plans for the development called for a 65-story building with 620 apartments, which was later scaled back to plans for a 35-story building with 248 apartments.
Kohn Pedersen Fox is designing the structure along with NYCEDC and JEMB. "I want it to be an iconic building," JEMB Chairman Morris Bailey told Bloomberg, "We're building this for long-term, for my grandkids. We're not guys who flip for profit. We don't do that. We build for our future." The project is slated to break ground next year with completion scheduled for 2018.
· Firm reveals plans for Brooklyn's tallest building [NYP]
· New 400K-square-foot commercial building coming to Brooklyn's Tech Triangle [BE]
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