Changes Coming Slowly to Restoration Plaza
[nggallery id=”54792″ template=galleryview] The netting’s down at Restoration Plaza in Bedford Stuyvesant and the photos above represent how the in-progress transformation of its open space is looking. The years-in-the-making project is designed by Garrison Architects, and plans call for new benches, plantings, a garden and a “Great Hall” for weddings and concerts. According to a…
[nggallery id=”54792″ template=galleryview]
The netting’s down at Restoration Plaza in Bedford Stuyvesant and the photos above represent how the in-progress transformation of its open space is looking. The years-in-the-making project is designed by Garrison Architects, and plans call for new benches, plantings, a garden and a “Great Hall” for weddings and concerts. According to a sign on the construction site, this should have been done November 2010. There’s still plenty of work needed before it looks like renderings of the finished product, however.
The Restoration of Restoration Plaza [Brownstoner] GMAP
Real estate veteran, I don’t doubt anything you say, and as a resident, I am happier than you can possibly imagine that we have a quality market like Superfoodtown there. I remember Pathmark. I’m sure Foodtown is happy, too.
I also think Applebee’s is great, even though I don’t patronize it all that often. I don’t sneer at it, either, as it too, is a valuable resource of jobs and a sit down restaurant in a neighborhood that doesn’t have many of them. I’m sure getting them to open there took wheeling and dealing of the first order.
I just want them to get it done, already.
to be fair to Restoration, raising the money to do programming in the Plaza, and to fix up the vacant office space, is very very difficult
getting the superfoodtown in there, and the applebee’s, were major accomplishments real estate wise, whether you personally like them or not
I just walked by a hour ago, there were a few workers on site.
The Burger King is not being torn down. There is a project to install artwork next to the Burger King. The project is part of NYC’s Percent for Art program.
I heard the Burger King site was for sale, too, HM. I’m glad the owner of the BK didn’t close up and jump ship at the news that the land under it was for sale, or we’d have another empty lot, or closed up abandoned building to look at. Better a functioning restaurant. I think any number of businesses would do well in this general area, and there are spaces available. I hope someday is soon, as well.
I’ve been wondering what’s been going on with this. Disappointing news, but thanks for the post about it. I heard a rumor that there were plans in the works as well to tear down the BK across the street and install a pedestrian walkway/small park of some sort and, so I heard tell, bring in a farmers market. That info was passed along by someone who took the PACC trolley tour for people thinking of opening a business in the area. Guess that won’t be happening anytime soon either. Restoration plaza and the general area has so much potential. It’s time will come… someday…
nyc capital funding…
great plan, great design architect
Totally agree, MM.
They are moving slower than molasses in January. I don’t know if their funding got held up, or what, but they are wayyyyyyyy behind schedule. At this rate, it won’t be done until about 2020. And I’m not kidding. If I had a business in here that was forced to relocate for the length of the project, I’d never come back unless they gave me about 10 years of free rent, and maybe not then, either.
It irritates me because Restoration Plaza is a very important part of the commercial life of Bed Stuy, and the showpiece of the renaissance of central Brooklyn. The re-do of this place, which was needed for several reasons, was part of a larger plan of housing, commercial ventures, etc, which all seemed to have dissolved in the housing crisis. OK, I understand that part of it, but not this. If they didn’t have the money to do it, they shouldn’t have started it. For almost a year, they had chain link fencing with green “grass” woven into it across the front of the main entrance, hiding the broken up stairway, while the project was stalled for whatever reason. Garbage got trapped in the fencing, plastic bags and chip bags, etc, and it just looked awful. Nothing was happening, except that sign that says it would be done in 2010. Right. We need to do better, here.