Will Clarett Think Big in Carroll Gardens?
Although the planned development at 360 Smith Street has been getting Carroll Gardeners worked up into a lather for a while now, some neighborhood watchdogs are increasingly concerned about the fate of 340 Court Street, a property that includes the former International Longshoreman’s Association building. According to community members who spoke at last week’s town…
Although the planned development at 360 Smith Street has been getting Carroll Gardeners worked up into a lather for a while now, some neighborhood watchdogs are increasingly concerned about the fate of 340 Court Street, a property that includes the former International Longshoreman’s Association building. According to community members who spoke at last week’s town hall meeting, the Clarett Group recently bought the site for $24 million, and the firm could build up to 21 stories on the parcels it’s acquired. While Clarett is no stranger to big Brooklyn builds—the company is developing the 28-story Forté near BAM (an ad for which helps keeps the servers on around here) and appears to have plans in the works to put up a 51-story residential tower on Lawrence Street—the developer told Assemblywoman Joan Millman that it hasn’t even hired an architect for 340 Court, and that it doesn’t intend to construct a building that’s dramatically out of context with surrounding buildings. That may be a wise business move given the community’s ever-increasing sensitivity to the height of new developments: A couple folks at least week’s meeting were already talking about organizing opposition towards Clarett’s future project sight-unseen. More on this one surely to come.
Calls for Reining in Development at CG Meeting [Brownstoner] GMAP
360 Smith: Update and Review of New Plans [Brownstoner]
Calling this block “blighted” is quite an exaggeration. If this is “blighted”, I’ll take this any day over most blocks. Please — there are beautiful brownstones on the streets opposite this, and I’d be surprised if the current building has any affect on their home’s values. Yes, it’s an ugly building, and there are more than a handful on various blocks of Carroll Gardens. A new building may very well be an improvement. But it makes me laugh to hear it called blighted.
I always get a kick out of the fact that the building houses an ambulatory rehab clinic- and you have to climb all those stairs to get to it.\
I am with 11:46 on this. It is a blighted block due to this terrible building and you couldn’t do much worse. A row of 5/6 story buildings would be a nice improvement.
I live a few blocks away, and though I generally am suspicious of new towers going up in the ‘hood, I’m actually interested to see what a developer would propose here. This corner is in a great location, but this current building isn’t any great shakes. The whole block has a very abandoned and derelict feel to it right now because of the dead space around this structure. If they could propose a design that had space for some good retail shops and lots of nice apartments (and wasn’t 70 feet high), I’d be open to hearing more …
Rumors have it that the developer is working out a sweetheart deal with the city to build a project there, which will take some of the crunch off the Gowanus and Wyckoff Street Houses.
I believe the tentative name is “The Longshoreman’s Houses.”
Rumors have it that the developer is working out a sweetheart deal with the city to build a project there, which will take some of the crunch off the Gowanus and Wyckoff Street Houses.
I believe the tentative name is “The Longshoreman’s Houses.”
Ahh, conservative types and their fear of change. Boo hoo.
Building a 70-foot tall building through the Qualitity Housing Program is probably, from a developer’s point of view, consistent with Clarett’s statement that it “doesn’t intend to construct a building that’s dramatically out of context with surrounding buildings.” The key word here is “dramatically.” However, a 70-foot tall building will probably still freak out the neighborhood.
I agree with 10:33. Let them design the building first then the community can freak out.
Yeah, technically they could build 21 stories if the building is a pencil-like sliver that’s squat in the middle of the block end. Clarett will probably opt to use the ‘quality housing option’ giving them some extra square feet for a more contextual building. The max building height would be 70′ under this scenario and meet the front property line. If Clarett builds to the maximum lot coverage, 80%, they won’t be able to hit that 70′ height anyway.
So I wouldn’t worry too much.