Gan on Greene, a Jewish preschool organization, is currently converting the four-story building at 54 Greene Avenue, in Fort Greene, into a 45-seat school. According to Brownstoner, construction of the school is underway on the structure’s interior. The project will also include cleaning of the exterior. The program will include three classes and opening is scheduled for September of 2016.
Five environmentally-minded projects in Greenpoint received a total $4.25 million in funding last week, according to DNAinfo. One of those projects include the Greenpoint Monitor Museum’s planned USS Monitor Park, which was specifically awarded $599,200. To be located at 56 Quay Street on the Bushwick Inlet, the vacant property would be transformed into public green space. The shoreline would be restored and designed to protect against future floods, and a boardwalk would be installed. The Greenpoint Monitor Museum building will eventually be constructed on the same property, adjacent to a neighboring warehouse. AECOM is designing and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is partnered in the project.
Earlier this year, YIMBY reported on the topping out of XIN Development’s seven-story, 216-unit residential building under construction at 429 Kent Avenue, located a block from the East River in South Williamsburg. Today, a vast majority of the façade work has been completed, courtesy of Brownstoner. Known as the Oosten, it will include 201 condominiums and 15 townhouse units, as well as a 10,000 square-foot art gallery on the first two floors. Work is also well underway on the 14,000 square-foot inner courtyard. The developer is the U.S. branch of Beijing-based Xinyuan Real Estate Co., and Piet Boon and Think Architecture & Design designed the project. Completion is expected in early 2016.
Tennessee-based Chartwell Hospitality has filed applications for two hotel buildings that would rise on the roughly 80,000 square-foot parking lot immediately east of the Hilton New York JFK Airport, located at 144-02 135th Avenue in South Jamaica. The larger hotel planned is an 11-story, 362-key building measuring 158,892 square feet in total. Rooms would average 439 square feet apiece. The second hotel would be a 12-story, 183-key structure measuring 84,664 square feet. In that building, rooms would average a slightly larger 463 square feet apiece. Gene Kaufman is the architect of record for both hotels, according to The Real Deal.
The Gural family is planning to reconfigure and make upgrades to their six-story, 122,454 square-foot commercial property at 560 Broadway, in SoHo, according to Crain’s. The building, built in 1890 and located within the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, will have its main entrance moved to Crosby Street. In the process, Converse – one of two ground-floor retail tenants – will gain 1,500 square feet of space and 30 feet of street frontage. In addition, two of the building’s four stairwells will be removed in exchange for elevators and 8,000 square feet of extra office space. The Landmarks Preservation Commission would have to approve the project, which would also rename the building to 100 Crosby Street. Rosen Johnson Architects is designing.
