More Details on 29 Flatbush
2011’s only just begun but it’s already becoming obvious what will be the highest profile new building in Brooklyn this year. Permits were issues and ground was broken at the end of the year at 29 Flatbush, and a press release last week revealed details about the project’s financing. On Wednesday, The Dermot Company (the…
2011’s only just begun but it’s already becoming obvious what will be the highest profile new building in Brooklyn this year. Permits were issues and ground was broken at the end of the year at 29 Flatbush, and a press release last week revealed details about the project’s financing. On Wednesday, The Dermot Company (the developer) announced that it had closed on $90 million of tax-exempt financing, just making the end-of-year deadline; at the same time, Dermot also closed on the purchase of a piece of land from HPD. In addition to the $90 million in debt, Dermot raised another $70 million of equity from Grosvenor Investment Management. The 42-story tower will include 327 rental units (20 percent of which will be affordable) along with 200 parking spaces and 7,600 square feet of retail space on Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street. And for those who like to follow the strange horse-trading that goes on behind the scenes, the press release revealed that “the project utilizes inclusionary housing certificates that Dermot purchased from a local community group who built an affordable housing project located at 15 Quincy Street.” As you may recall, this is the same development that BFC built to satisfy its affordable housing commitment related to Toren.
Ground Broken at 29 Flatbush Avenue [Brownstoner]
29 Flatbush Finally Coming Together? [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
Signs of Life at Dermot’s 29 Flatbush? [Brownstoner]
Dermot Plans High-Rise Rental Near BAM [Brownstoner]
“If parking wasn’t there, people would take transit and walk instead,”—
or perhaps wouldn’t come. If you don’t provide for all options, you may become less economically viable. As someone who lives in neighborhood bordering downtown brooklyn, would like option of place to garage a car.
Demand is not a silly way to look at it if you are the builder/investor. For better or worse, we live in a largely market-based economy.
I would be happy if another parking space was never built in the city, but as far as parking goes it looks like they are doing a good job here limiting the influence on the street.
I assume that most of the parking will be underground, reducing the visual and economic impact.
I do wish the city would increase efforts to reduce car use including increased parking taxes, more meters, higher rates, and congestion pricing.
Demand is a silly way to look at it. Yeah, if you turned 5 blocks of midtown into a giant parking lot, it would probably fill up. That doesn’t mean that would be a good thing to do.
There is only demand for parking because parking is there – and thus people think driving into a city center is a good/feasible idea. If parking wasn’t there, people would take transit and walk instead, which would be preferable from about every single conceivable standpoint – safety, environment, economic efficiency, livability, and street life (that is, whether Flatbush will develop into a walkable retail corridor or a car-dominated strip mall).
Parking demand in the area is high. On any given weekday, parking lots in the area are full. I am assuming people park here and take the subway into Manhattan. And as Chuck mentions, once you add the Atlantic Yards to the mix, parking spaces will be in even bigger demand.
The amount of parking IS bullshit.
But sadly, it’s a safe bet, because they can always be rented out for arena events at Shitlantic Yards.
parking is not a developer decision it is a code requirement set by the city.
I assume there is a demand for parking in the area based on the high rates charged by local garages and the lack of available on-street parking.
I do question the conventional wisdom often expressed here that more traffic harms neighborhoods.
Traffic in most of Manhattan is worse than it is in this area, but I don’t see it holding down the real estate prices or neighborhood vitality there.
lots of people who may want to own cars for occasional usage – not daily.And the garage does not have to be for only people who live in the building.
Would it not have been nice for area residents before this last blizzard to have had a garage nearby to put car into?
This is a ludicrous amount of parking for this transit-dense area.
BHScott, there is not “obviously a demand for it”. The new towers nearby that were also forced to build parking by antiquated Moses-era zoning requirements are having trouble renting that parking at market rates, and are resorting to tactics like bundling a parking space as an inducement to rent an apartment. The question is why this developer is apparently choosing to include more parking than the zoning requires. It’s a very bad investment that will not pay off for them, and will directly harm the neighborhood’s future vitality by clogging it with more cars and more traffic.