Downtown is going up!
Developers are planning to build two skyscrapers in Brooklyn’s beating commercial heart that will dwarf other towers in the borough.
JEMB Realty announced Monday that it will construct a 600-foot office building — roughly 60 standard floors — at Albee Square West between Fulton and Willoughby streets.
But even that will look Lilliputian in comparison to the 1,000-foot residential super-tower JDS Development and the Chetrit Group plan to erect two blocks away at Flatbush Avenue Extension and Fleet Street, according to a report on real-estate blog New York Yimby.
Both high-rises will rob the almost-complete 591-foot Ava DoBro apartment building at Willoughby and Duffield streets of its “borough’s tallest tower” title.
Here is a look the new heights America’s Downtown will reach in years to come.
420 Albee Square
This behemoth will be the first full office building to rise Downtown since the city rezoned the neighborhood in 2004 to allow for such supersized structures.
The area is suffering from a shortage of office space and businesses are already interested in snapping up some of the coveted cubicles, said a broker for the property.
“The folks we have talked to have expressed interest in the project,” Scott Cahaly, executive vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle, which is handling leasing for the building.
JEMB Realty bought the land last year and originally planned a 35-story residential building for the site. But the city’s Economic Development Corporation — a quasi-governmental body charged with promoting business in New York — offered to sell it a swathe of extra air rights from a neighboring building if it promised to build the much-needed office space instead, a spokesman said.
Construction on the project, which will also include ground-floor retail, is slated to begin in the first half of 2016, and wrap up within two years.
340 Flatbush Ave Ext.
But the Albee Square building’s time in the sunlight may be short-lived if JDS and Chetrit follow through with their super-tower two blocks away.
The developers plan a soaring, skinny residential skyscraper containing around 90 floors, 550 units, and some commercial space, according to Yimby, which says it got the info and renderings from an internal company document.
The real estate outfits bought the sites $43.5 million last year, then purchased the landmarked Dime Savings Bank next door for $90 million earlier this year.
The developers won’t be able to mess much with the bank due to its historic status — the city wouldn’t even let the former owner add a wheelchair ramp — but the former savings institution’s air rights will allow it to go colossal next door.
The owners have not filed plans for the building yet, though JDS posted an Instagram video in September teasing the view from the forthcoming tower that confirms the company has its sights set on some serious altitude.
