Step right up, step right up, right this way!
The developers of Downtown’s new City Point mall have reopened a shuttered entrance to the DeKalb Avenue stop — and rebuilt it right into the side of their shopping center, which they hope will take customers from the platform to parting with their cash more easily.
“The DeKalb Avenue subway stop is important for us because it provides a very direct access point,” said Paul Travis of Washington Square Partners, one of the developers behind the project.
Q and R train riders used to access the Downtown-side Flatbush Avenue Extension entrance via a sidewalk-level staircase, but the shopping center’s construction put it out of action for three years.
During that time, City Point honchos built the new egress at Fleet Street — with new walls, stairs, and lighting — which opened this month. And some locals say it was well worth the wait.
“It’s nice, everything takes a long time, but now it’s done it’s an improvement for sure,” said Phillip Mahin, a Park Slope resident who takes the B and Q trains to the stop.
Others, however, say it is a step down in more ways than one.
“It’s unnecessary to be honest, it wasn’t worth waiting three to four years for,” said Downtown resident Emerald, who wouldn’t give her last name.
City Point will open later this year, and will include outlets of tourist-favorite designer emporium Century 21, hipster cinema chain Alamo Drafthouse, and Target, plus a fancy subterranean food court with an outpost of Katz’s Delicatessen. It also has several luxury housing high-rises.
— with Jack Healy