Last month, the City Council greenlighted the controversial plan to sell and redevelop the Brooklyn Heights Library into condos and a new library. Now the project has moved one step closer to reality, because Hudson Companies has filed building applications for a 36-story tower at 1 Clinton Street.
The Brooklyn Public Library system will make $52 million off the sale of the old Brooklyn Heights branch, a 54-year-old structure that was originally designed to house both a library and a fall-out shelter. Officials claim that money will go toward fixing aging library branches throughout the borough, which supposedly need at least $100 million in repairs.
The new building will reach 409 feet into the air and span 294,773 square feet. The library will fill 26,620 square feet in the cellar and first floor, according to reps from Councilmember Stephen Levin’s office. A 930-square-foot retail space will occupy the rest of the ground floor along Cadman Plaza. Last we heard, the city hopes to lease part of the retail space to Brooklyn Roasting Company and include a small pop-up shop curated by Smorgasburg.
The library will have a reading room, assembly space, offices and storage, as well as an upper mezzanine with another reading room. 134 condos will be stacked on top.
The condos will begin on the second floor, with eight units, topped by 12 units on the third floor, and eight on the fourth. The remaining floors will hold fewer, larger units—two to five units each. Condo buyers will be able to choose from one- to four-bedrooms, and those larger, family-sized units will likely be on the last 12 floors.
Those 134 apartments will be spread across 276,662 square feet of residential space, for average units of 2,064 square feet. The building will offer amenities on several floors, like a screening room, gym, storage, and a 52-car garage.
The rest of the development will include 114 affordable rentals. Hudson will build them at two sites in Clinton Hill, 1043 Fulton Street and 907 Atlantic Avenue. Permits have already been filed for both nine-story buildings.
Marvel Architects is designing the condo tower, the library and the affordable rentals.
Update: This post had previously said the library would only take up 17,000 square feet. But reps for city Councilman Stephen Levin’s office informed us that figure didn’t include the below-grade space, which brings the total up to 26,620 square feet. We’ve updated the story accordingly.
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“The library will fill 17,180 feet on the cellar and first floors….” That does not reflect the deal hammered out at the City Council. You do know there are modifications to the building program as a result of the City Council’s review of the ULURP application, right?
you should get a copy of the complaint.. Maybe Hudson should sue BPl and the city for a misleading RFP and recover all david’s costs. I will back him up on that after all he was only responding to a false pretense
The DOB filing refers to zoning square feet, not gross square feet. Below-grade square feet aren’t counted in the document. The library will be, as agreed upon during ULURP, 26K+ SF, 17K of which will be at or above grade. A project that goes through ULURP can’t just arbitrarily recant what is agreed upon during that process, no matter how much noise the handful or opponents make. But I’m sure they don’t want to confuse anyone with facts.
falsified documents are just that .. false documents.. and levin failed to vet this properly.. why
he had over 2 years to do so?
Yes, someone from CM Levin’s office reached out to me yesterday evening and told me as much. I plan to update the post shortly.
Hudson Companies development of the BPL/heights and business libraries is based on a false pretense. The BPL misrepresented its financial situation in order to sell the project. The City of New York and EDC are also responsible. Read my complaint sent to Attroney General Schneiderman this week. Next step is the Borough Board at Boro Hall on 2/2. Not so fast David Kramer/Users/marsharimler/Desktop/LBL Complaint-Jan 15-2016 (2).pdf
I want to get the complaint filed to the A/g available to all to read. We allege that Brooklyn Public Library and the City of New York and the Economic Development Agency/ Corporation engaged in a false pretense in putting this RFP together. We further allege that Linda Johnson BPL CEO and President misrepresented the facts before the city council and state assembly. We have documents to back up that claim and call on Attorney General Schneiderman, Comptroller Stringer and/or Comptroller DeNapoli and Public Advocate James to stand up for the truth and public integrity. If you are interested in recieving a copy of the complaint contact me at marshasrimler@gmail. com