On Friday morning, a small group of area residents met with Kenneth Horn of Alchemy Properties, the development, marketing and consulting firm which just took over the long-stalled project at 340 Court Street after the previous developer, The Clarett Group, pulled out.
The project consist of a 7 story, 32 unit condominium building along Court Street and of 11 adjoining townhouses on Union and Sackett Streets. The goal of the meeting was to establish a dialog between the community and the developer and to address concerns before construction on the project resumes. It was also hoped that the developer would be open to changing the dark, unappealing façade of the Rogers Marvel designed building, which had been widely criticized when presented to the community in 2008.
Kenneth Horn assured everyone present that his firm will be responsive and will make itself available to address some of the issues that will come up during the construction phase, but was quick to point out that the project is being built as-of-right and that the NYC Buildings Department has approved all plans. He was also clear that the project will continue forward with the Rogers Marvel design and that the envelope of the building will not change.
He did, however agree that the façade needed to be improved. "The building will not be black" he stated. "It will be significantly lighter."
Construction will start very soon. The steel has been ordered and cut. It will be delivered in early August. Construction on the townhouses will most probably begin in the fall.
Alchemy has been in business since 1990. The firm has completed 24 projects, mostly in Manhattan.This will be its second Brooklyn project. (The first was at 199 State Street) .
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8 comments:
Despite the residents overall mistrust and resistance to change, I personally see this as a good thing for Carroll Gardens in particular and the neighboring areas because Brooklyn needs improvement on many levels, it also needs construction projects to boost local sales and community interest for other projects
Hi Vincent, How do construction projects boost local sales? of what? And why does Brooklyn need community interest for other projects? This sounds to me like a prelude to more construction projects that may take away the very character of what is so wonderful about our neighborhood, and what attracts people here.
Hi Vincent, How do construction projects boost local sales? of what? And why does Brooklyn need community interest for other projects? This sounds to me like a prelude to more construction projects that may take away the very character of what is so wonderful about our neighborhood, and what attracts people here.
7 stories is too high for this section of Court street but it is s good bit shorter than the 15 stories developers want to put on Public Place site. Lets hope that the 7 stories does more to dampen the any interest in the community for doubling that height.
The 32 Condos and 11 2-family Townhouses will certainly need additional classroom seats at PS58 two years from now.
15 stories for Public Place site??? After listening to the DEC explain how toxic Public Place site is, and how they won't be able to remove all that, and the complicated way National Grid is "cleaning" it up, dreams of putting residential buildings there (by Gowanus Green?!?) sound criminal.
15 stories at Public Place site is no longer feasible. Due to extra cleanup costs mandated by the Superfund designation, a 40 story tower is needed to restore the Public Place property to beneficial reuse.
The sad part of the Superfund is that struggling Gowanus buisnesses won't survive the displacement if/when the EPA cleans their property.
@9:17 Give it a rest.
This sounds to me like a prelude to more construction projects that may take away the very character of what is so wonderful about our neighborhood, and what attracts people here.
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