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A developer wants to transform one of Fort Greene’s most imposing and desolate blocks by building housing, a supermarket and — be still your beating hearts, pinheads — a bowling alley.
The monolith taking up the block boxed by Vanderbilt, Clermont and Atlantic avenues and Fulton Street — formerly a high-tech telecommunications office building — could be refurbished to be a more attractive retail and office building, while the existing parking lot could be turned into a 350-unit apartment building if the city approves the developer’s rezoning proposal.
More than 20 percent of the units would be rented at below-market rates thanks to taxpayer subsidies.
“It’s an important connection point at the end of Fort Greene, but [right now] it’s a no-man’s land with a giant parking lot,” said Andrew Zobler, the chief executive officer of GFI Development. “Everyone wants to see it connected with the rest of the neighborhood.”
The building has languished since the dot-com bubble burst near the start of the century and was controlled by the Carlyle Group until GFI acquired it a year and a half ago.
Zobler presented preliminary plans last week for converting the equipment-filled building and Community Board 2’s Land Use Committee responded with 13–0 vote in favor of the project.
Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Clinton Hill) has also been an outspoken supporter, citing the proposal’s “community amenities.”
“I like the affordable housing, the supermarket and retail components,” she told The Brooklyn Paper.
But the developers have so far had a strike of the baseball, not bowling, variety, in finding an alley operator to join them.
The project has not yet begun the rigorous land-use review process that is required when developer’s seek to change zoning, in this case from manufacturing to residential.
©2009 Community Newspaper Group
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