More Development Expected for Downtown Brooklyn

A new park and mixed-use towers are in the plans for Downtown Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the original chairman of the Battery Park City Authority urges privatization of the district.

Development-Friendly in Brooklyn

A new development around Willoughby Square may offer a taste of what's to come in Downtown Brooklyn, already the third-largest central business district in New York City after Midtown and Downtown Manhattan.

Willoughby Square is part of the proposed redevelopment of Downtown Brooklyn, where there are 2,000 new residential units, 4.5 million sq. ft. of office space, and 900,000 sq. ft. of retail space either under construction or in the planning pipeline, according to the Downtown Brooklyn Council, a non-profit economic development agency coordinating the redevelopment.

The square itself will be a 1.5-acre park, under which the city plans to build a 700-space garage. The big addition will be three large mixed-use towers encircling the park, two of which are already in the planning process.

Construction on the first tower, a 60-story, 1.2-million-sq.-ft. building under development by New York-based Thor Equities, is scheduled to break ground later this year. Designed by New York-based Perkins Eastman, the building includes 100,000 sq. ft. each of retail and office space, 400,000 sq. ft. of hotel space, and 600,000 sq. ft. of condominiums. Thor refused comment on whether it has hired a construction manager for the job.

Queens Garage Site Slated for Redevelopment

New York City has designated a private partnership to redevelop the Queens Plaza Garage site in Long Island City as part of a $30 million infusion into the area.

The agency has designated a joint venture between Med-Mac Properties and Tishman Speyer, both based in New York, to redevelop the site, for which the city is seeking an anchor tenant before launching construction. Tishman Speyer is also developer on a new building at the nearby Court Square Two site for Citigroup, the financial services company.

The city's Economic Development Corp. and Department of City Planning recently allocated $30 million, largely from federal funds and the Queens Borough President's office, for the reconstruction of several sites in a 37-block section of Long Island City. The city had rezoned the area in 2001 in efforts to boost economic activity in the borough.

Part of the city's economic package will support the redevelopment of the rest of Queens Plaza and Jackson Avenue, street-scape improvements, and a 1.5-acre park. Construction on those elements is set to start in 2007.

Chelsea Sales May Spark Towers

The easterly block front on 10th Avenue between West 30th and 31st streets in Manhattan, now occupied by a two-story garage and a five-story walkup, may soon get a tower 40 to 50 stories high.

New York's Extell Development Corp. - which last summer submitted an unsuccessful bid to develop the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn - purchased the 131-ft. long parcel in the Hudson Yards district for $23 million. The site is close to the MTA railyard serving Pennsylvania Station over which the New York Jets football franchise had proposed to build a new stadium. Plans for the stadium, which was expected to spark a major redevelopment of the area, died last year when state officials denied funding and other approvals it would have required.

In addition to the existing floor-area ratio already in place under city zoning rules, Extell can purchase air rights from the authority for the 10th Avenue site that would allow >>

a building of roughly 315,360 sq. ft., or 40 to 50 stories, according to a broker for Eastern Consolidated, the real estate brokerage that handled the sale.

Extell has not selected an architect or contractor for the project, because the site's previous owner, the Stuart Dean Co., intends to lease parts of the building for up to a year.

Meanwhile, Eastern Consolidated reported that a Queens-based hotel developer it refused to identify bought a 6,476-sq.-ft., open-air parking lot at 121-125 West 26th St. The site could support a 64,760-sq.-ft. structure. Eastern valued the sale at $9.3 million.

BPC Founder Urges Privatization

Charles Urstadt, who was chairman and CEO of the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority upon its creation in 1968, recently recommended that New York city and state officials privatize the district and apply funds from sales of the properties to subsidize affordable housing development.

While accepting the first annual Visionary Leadership in Real Estate award from the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute of Baruch College and the City University of New York, Urstadt suggested that privatization of the district could fetch $3 billion for the authority, which is a New York State public benefit corporation.

Urstadt said that $300 million of the proceeds could be used to fill in 50 acres of the Hudson River in order to expand the existing development up to Canal Street. He also said that legislation authorizing the privatization could earmark funds for affordable housing, and called upon the mayor and the governor to set up a commission to implement the proposal.

Red Cross Helps Chinatown

The American Red Cross recently awarded a grant for restoration of city parks in New York City's Chinatown neighborhood in order to mitigate economic damage stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

The organization's Liberty Disaster Relief Fund awarded $422,000 last fall to the Chinatown Partnership, an organization formed to reconnect the area to the rest of Lower Manhattan. The money is intended to help fund restoration projects for Park Row, Chatham Square, Pier 35 on the East River, James Madison Park, and a new public space along the waterfront. The fund also will help establish a night market and provide bilingual guides for visitors.