Mid-Century Bank, Four Other Downtown Brooklyn Buildings to Make Way for 45-Story Tower

Another tower will be rising in Downtown Brooklyn as half a block on Fulton Street, including a mid-century bank building, is set to be demolished to make way for a 45-story mixed-use development that will include affordable housing.

While no scaffolding has appeared yet, a recent walk by the block showed construction workers on the site and doors boarded up at some of the buildings. Applications for demolition permits for the structures were filed in October but no permits have been issued yet. The buildings stretch from the bank at 356 Fulton Street on the corner of Red Hook Lane to 370 Fulton Street, which abuts the landmarked Gage & Tollner.

Filings propose a mixed-use tower at 356 Fulton Street with affordable housing, lower level parking, retail at the street level and residences above with a total of 475,474 square feet. (Thirty percent of the 421 units will be set aside as middle-income targeted housing under the state’s 421a tax break program, according to Crain’s.) While the filings indicate a 43-story building, the Schedule A shows 45 stories, including two floors of mechanicals at the top. SLCE Architects is the architect of record. The Manhattan-based firm already has another project nearby, the 21-story condo tower at 1 Boerum Place.

The neo-Formalist bank at 356 Fulton Street was designed by architect Adolf Goldberg and his firm Goldberg-Epstein Associates and completed in 1968 as the headquarters for Equitable Savings and Loan Association. The angled facade is brightened by rows of white pillars and aquamarine tiles, giving what Brownstoner columnist Suzanne Spellen has described as “a bit of color and zing” to the otherwise simple exterior.

The bank, which was occupied by a Capital One branch until 2019, was purchased by The Feil Organization in 2015 for $43 million while the four other parcels on the block were acquired by the company under the name 360-372 Fulton LLC this May for $19,987,580, public records reveal.

Those four other parcels include two four-story structures at 366 and 370 Fulton Street and two storefronts, No. 360 and 362-364 Fulton Street, that once housed a one-story Modell’s store. While their facades have been greatly altered over the decades, historic tax photos show the four-story buildings likely date to the 19th century. At the time of the circa 1940 photos, No. 366 was home to a Childs Restaurant.

No renderings have been posted at the site or online except for a very small thumbnail labelled “Fulton Street Development” on The Feil Organization website , which seems to show an early version of the plans. How closely the new building will abut Gage & Tollner isn’t clear. That building, 372 Fulton Street, is an individual landmark and its first floor dining room is an interior landmark.

The tower will join a growing skyline centered around Fulton Street, including the recently topped out supertall at 9 Dekalb Avenue.

[Photos by Susan De Vries]

Related Stories

• A Mid-Century Surprise in Downtown Brooklyn
• Building Starting to Rise on Prominent Site of Former Printing Plant in Downtown Brooklyn
• Windows Almost Finished at This 21-Story Condo Tower on a Busy Corner in Downtown Brooklyn

Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.