Bending the Rules for a Bank on Bedford
Last night Williamsburg residents got to hear about a developer’s plans to bring a large bank and residential development to a prime stretch of the Northside. A lawyer representing the owners of 118-130 North 4th Street—between Bedford and Berry—made a presentation to Community Board 1 in order to try to get board members’ blessings for…
Last night Williamsburg residents got to hear about a developer’s plans to bring a large bank and residential development to a prime stretch of the Northside. A lawyer representing the owners of 118-130 North 4th Street—between Bedford and Berry—made a presentation to Community Board 1 in order to try to get board members’ blessings for the construction of a new building that would include a 5,000-square-foot Commerce Bank branch fronting Bedford Avenue (as per the Bricolage rendering, above). The North 4th property is part of an Urban Renewal Area established in 1969 that prohibits any uses aside from manufacturing, which means the developers have to go through ULURP in order to build a new mixed-use structure, a stricture that expires in 2009. In exchange for bypassing the industrial-use requirement, the developers intend to offer 20 percent of their planned 72 units as affordable housing. A few board members expressed reservations about the bank’s design (the phrase it looks like a mall was said several times), though at least one person noted that Williamsburg increasingly needs services like banks and supermarkets. The developers’ lawyer emphasized that the design is still preliminary, and it’s likely that it’ll get tweaked in the coming months. What do you think of it in its current form? GMAP P*Shark
“this should be 100% affordable housing (condos, not rentals), with below market financing provided by commerce bank. should be designated for artists, professors, and other creative/cultural personnel who would repay their subsidies by the richness they add to a community”
And another of you a-holes wrote “US ARTISTS”
Holy shit when did an occupation of a person make them so entitled.
Get a effin grip.
“A community we founded” also probably coming from a twenty something dipshit!
sheesh
da chef
I think that Commerce Bank would be a welcome addition to Williamsburg!!!!
The design is elegnat in its simplicity and is consistent with the scale of the neghborhood. I think it is admirable that the developer did not try to come in and build another hideous tower. The developer will be allowed to build the very same project as of right in 2009, but he is willing to go through this process and provide an affordable housing component to meet the needs of the community. While I am generally anti-development I think this project seems reasonable and I think the developer is being fair with his requests.
the design of this bank branch is perfectly respectable and generally fits within the vernacular of classic urban bank buildings — a big, high-ceilinged room that holds the corner of a block. there is really nothing wrong with this design and it actually might look quite nice when it’s done.
williamsburg should be happy that commerce isn’t coming in and trying to build a drive-thru with a huge parking lot out front like they wanted to do on 5th ave in park slope.
and if you want to see how ugly and destructive a commerce bank can get, check out the branch on 36th Street and 4th ave in sunset park. it is a freakin’ atrocity. a veritable crime against humanity.
Ok retards — the rendering will change, the neighbors will protest, the height will be scaled back, the building will happen. The artists will be forced out like roaches. The pro-build fascists will rant their rants. The artists will weep. The real original backbone — the Polish and jews and Hispanicals — will slowly die off.
And the rich? They’ll always have their choice, cuz the world’s their oyster.
“Get rich; you’ll have more choice!”-G.W.Bush
to the person who said that “artists essentially founded this neighborhood”… yeah and christopher columbus discovered america. this neighborhood was “founded” by hardworking immigrants long before you were born. pull your head out of your ass and move to east new york.
Quite possibly the worst rendering ever.
All of the urban Commerce branches look like that. My main concern is why there’s nothing above it.
i’m calling bs on the new commerce. td bank of canada recently announced plans to buy cbh. the integration process will likely sideline any new branches for at least another year. cbh branches are notoriously expensive. the old ceo paid his wife’s company $9mn per year to design them. that’s part of the reason he’s the old ceo and a canadian bank is about to own them…