The revitalization of the area between Downtown Brooklyn and Dumbo is moving right along. The Jehovah's Witnesses vacating the huge Watchtower complex nearby, and Kushner Companies' Dumbo Heights campus is getting more tenants (Etsy and WeWork among them). And per a Wall Street Journal report, a new pedestrian plaza will soon take over a stretch of Sands Street that abuts some of the buildings in the campus, offering yet another amenity for the office workers who'll soon be flooding the area.
The plaza, which is described as an "adult playground" (of course), will be located on Sands Street between Adams and Jay Streets, right in the middle of the Dumbo Heights campus. A rendering (pictured above) shows what that could look like, with bike lanes, ample seating, and more. The Dumbo Heights developers, which includes LIVWRK and RFR Holdings in addition to Kushner, are expected to shell out approximately $700,000 to build and maintain the new space.
The developers are calling the space the "Brooklyn Tech Gateway," and it will operate as part of the city's Street Seats program. While similar to the pedestrian plazas found throughout the five boroughs, the public spaces that operate as part of Street Seats are meant to "transform underused streets into vibrant, social public spaces during the warm weather months." What that means: the owner of a building can take the curbside space outside of their buildings and transform it into a smaller pedestrian-friendly space, with assistance from the DOT; the owner will fund the project and choose the design, while the DOT provides input and assistance as needed.
A recent success story with the Street Seats program is the public space along Broadway between 36th and 41st Streets in Manhattan, which recently got approval to become a permanent plaza.
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