How Office Buildings Could Transform Fulton Mall Area
by Dennis Holt (Holt@brooklyneagle.net), published online 09-01-2005

BROOKLYN — When there is talk of a major new office building coming to an area, most people wonder what the impact will be on the immediate surroundings. This is especially acute when the office building is planned for an area where no such building existed before.
More times than not, the two most important questions are how many people will work in the new building, and what effect this number will have on the nearby neighborhood.

This is not an important question regarding the many that will be asked about the new office building called the Boerum Place site first reported by this newspaper last week. One reason is that this new building is on the Fulton Mall, and 100,000 people already walk along parts of that street every weekday.

So the tenants of this new building, no matter how many there will be, will not produce a pedestrian problem. (No one ever asks about people spillover when a new office building goes up in Midtown Manhattan.)

This new building will of course add to the growing luster on new structures on Boerum Place, with probably more to come at sites abutting Atlantic Avenue.

But the major impact of a tall and large new office building at the start of the Fulton Mall will be on the Fulton Mall itself. It is the kind of impact that will be slow to develop, but in time it will be inexorable.

The Fulton Mall Improvement Association, now part of the MetroTech Business Improvement District, has made major strides toward completely overhauling the Mall.

It recently received funding from a variety of government agencies totaling $8 million that will be used for upgrading the public spaces in the district which includes new street lighting, signage, kiosks, bus shelters, and the like.

It, through its consultants, has also produced some prospective new surface concepts for the Mall, one of which involves removal of the entry arches. Independent of that, Macy’s is investing more than $1 million to overhaul its store and upgrade its sales personnel.

Other parts of the Downtown Brooklyn plan focus on Willoughby Street, and could involve three new office buildings within a half block of the Mall. And a developer has already purchased some property on Duffield Street, where he hopes to build a hotel.

What will transpire in the next very few years is a building program that will completely change the demographics of the center core of the Downtown area. In time, this will lead to changes in the character of the retailers on the Mall.

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Groundbreaking Could be Soon For 11-story Mixed-Use Bldg
by Linda Collins (linda@brooklyneagle.net), published online 09-01-2005

Site Part of HS Development Partners Parcel at Smith, Schermerhorn Streets
BOERUM HILL — The site is fenced, ground preparation appears to be completed and permit applications have been filed with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) for an 11-story mixed-use building at Smith and Schermerhorn Streets in Boerum Hill.
The building is part of the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Urban Renewal Area and, more specifically, part of a nearly full-block parcel of that area being developed by HS Development Partners LLC, a partnership of Time Equities and Hamlin Ventures.

This newspaper has previously reported that construction of 14 townhouses (the State Street Townhouses) is already underway along the State Street side of the parcel; and plans are being finalized by Common Ground and the Actors Fund for a 200-unit affordable residential building along the Schermerhorn side of the parcel.

Calls to the developers went unreturned Monday. However, the 11-story building, which will possibly have the address of 71 Smith St., was described in 2003 documents as a mixed-use building with 125 market-rate rental apartments above retail space with a community facility at street level and commercial office space on the floor above.

According to the DOB applications, filed by Polshek Partnership Architects, the developers would like to include 190 dwelling units in a 98,067-square-foot building. The applications have not been approved as yet. Polshek, known for its award winning work at the Brooklyn Museum, is also designing the Common Ground building.

Better Buggy, a longtime tenant of this site, has closed and its one-story building demolished.