Brooklyn’s Court Street could soon resemble Third Avenue — not the one in the Borough of Churches, but rather the one on the other side of the East River, predicts Cushman & Wakefield retail specialist Diana Boutross. National chains are increasingly staking out locations along low-key Court Street, Boutross says — mostly near its Cadman Plaza northern end, but also south to the Gowanus Expressway. “The whole market down toward Carroll Gardens is going to resemble Third Avenue on the Upper East Side,” Boutross said.

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The city released maps of potential routes last week, including Community Board 2 streets in Fort Greene, Dumbo, Downtown, Brooklyn Heights, and Boerum Hill. Officials say they want to give the trolley right-of-way on as much of the system as possible, so some of the streets may need to be closed to vehicle traffic to accommodate the tram.

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Thank You Everyone! – What a big Success!
75 volunteers removed heaps of leaves and debris from Cadman Plaza Park and planted 3000 daffodils. We will get pictures out to everyone later this week.

Special thanks to our partners, city agencies and all the schools that helped to make “I Love Cadman Park” such a big success:

Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
BE.IN
NYC Parks
Partnerships for Parks
Mayor De Blasio’s Parks Initiative
Councilman Steve Levin
the awesome students from
Saint Francis College, NY City-Tech
Brooklyn College, St Joseph’s College
the Imagine School
NYU/POLY & EHS

New Yorkers for Parks
& The Daffodil Project
To make a donation go to
www.cadmanpark.org

Fortis Property Group has decided to move forward with an as-of-right development plan for the former Long Island College Hospital (LICH) that does not include affordable housing and will not require rezoning.

This was bad news for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had backed an alternate plan which would have included affordable housing, a priority of his administration.

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Thank you all for taking the time on Sunday to participate in the conference call with Council Member Levin.  The high level of interest we sustained throughout this rezoning issue has been recognized by Levin and his staff and they welcomed our input on this issue.  I would like to build upon this coalition so that we can address similar issues that affect Downtown Brooklyn, and by extension, Brooklyn Heights.

I spoke to Levin last night to get an update on the 141 Willoughby rezoning action.  He commented that the City (by which he likely meant EDC) was curious and a bit alarmed that a rezoning on Flatbush mobilized such concern within Brooklyn Heights.  I took that to be a good omen for the future.

Levin reported that the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises approved the ULURP application at the 15 FAR, in which 9 FAR is residential, 1.5 FAR is retail, and 4.5 FAR is office.  He was assured that the school will be built at Albee Square, although the 141 Willoughby project was no longer relevant to that deal being made.  Clearly the City was using the school as a threat to get the Willoughby project through the Council. Levin was supportive of the 15 FAR since he sees the outcome as a plus in terms of lowered residential density (9 vs. 12 under what they could get if the zoning matched the rest of downtown Brooklyn) and getting the office component.

Steve believes that the higher FAR on this project will also not set a precedent for other developers for two reasons:  1) a rezoning application on their properties costs them considerable money, and 2) they would be spending this money to get less residential FAR than they can build to under existing zoning. 141 Willoughby is unique in that they were operating under an existing 6 FAR.

He believes that the City will support an FAR of 18 in future rezoning applications to get a tradeoff from developers for other school projects.    This is an issue we will have to consider as a coalition, in my view, depending upon the specific sites involved.

I look forward to our working together on areas of common concern in the future.

click on image to enlarge

Parts of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade will likely have to be shut down once repairs begin on a deteriorating section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, officials said.

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In Downtown Brooklyn, the streetcar could run along Tillary Street before traveling south on Court Street, which the report notes has “excellent connections” to the subway. In Red Hook, Brooklyn, the line could run along Columbia Street or closer to the water along Van Brunt Street.

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After years of controversy, developer Hudson Companies the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) filed plans on Friday to demolish the Brooklyn Heights Library.

Asbestos abatement work will start on Wednesday.

Hudson plans to build a 36-story luxury tower with a new, smaller Brooklyn Heights branch at the original library site at 280 Cadman Plaza West.

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