Last year, in simpler times, Blesso Properties paid $33 million for the former Lincoln Savings Bank site at 525 Broadway in Williamsburg, next to the elevated train tracks. And though the site offered more than 190,000 buildable square feet, Blesso planned to keep the project small, expanding the building from its existing four stories to a still-modest ten, with 36 residential units, plus some retail space. (Oh, how times have changed!)
According to YIMBY, the project has now morphed into a massive “27-story, mixed-use building that will be nearly evenly divided between apartments and office space.” Per Blesso’s latest plans, offices will take the first six floors—126,410 square feet in total—minus a piece of the third, which will hold an auditorium. (Weird, YIMBY notes, but maybe it’s being built with a specific future tenant in mind?)
The building’s 226 apartments, meanwhile, start on the 7th floor and reach skyward. The average unit size? A lean 670 square feet, suggesting rentals. Some of the apartments will get their own private terraces, while the rest will have to make do with access to the shared roof deck. To ease that burden, there will be a shared amenity space on the seventh floor, and a 214-car garage underground.
Designed by Garrison Architects, the 298-foot-high tower will be among the tallest in the neighborhood. One outstanding question: whether the 1920s bank building will be incorporated into the tower’s architecture.
Loading comments...