Just like Brooklyn’s other trendy industrial zones in Bushwick and Williamsburg, the M-1 zone around the Gowanus Canal has become a breeding ground for boutique hotels. The developer of the nearby Union Hotel filed plans last year for a second hotel at 489 Baltic Street, on the border between Gowanus and Boerum Hill. Now YIMBY has renderings for the four-story project, named “Baltic Huis,” between Bond and Nevins Streets.
Ben Krone of Red Hook-based Gradient Architecture Studio ran with the neighborhood’s factory feel by integrating copper-y corten steel throughout the hotel, from the facade to the lobby. The rust-colored steel and gray brick help give the new building that aging industrial look and allow it to blend in with its low-slung warehouse neighbors. Meanwhile, the interiors are minimalist and monochromatic, featuring more typical combinations of concrete, gray steel and glass.
The Department of Buildings hasn’t approved permits yet. But eventually, the building will house 34 rooms over 9,968 square feet of commercial space, for an average, 293-square-foot room. A restaurant will occupy the cellar, where corten will cover the ceiling over the bar. The first floor will have seven rooms, followed by nine rooms each on the third and fourth floors.
Alec Shtromandel of Greenwich Street Equities is developing the project, and Kutnicki Bernstein are the architects of record. Shtromandel told YIMBY that his firm will also operate the hotel. His first project, the Union Hotel, sits just a couple blocks south of here on Degraw Street between Third and Fourth Avenues.
Greenwich Street snapped up the 5,000-square-foot property for $1,600,000, or $160 per buildable square foot, in February.
Construction and demolition are expected to begin within the next few weeks.
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