Brooklyn’s soon-to-be tallest tower isn’t just pushing into Downtown’s skyline.
The developer behind the forthcoming “supertall” high-rise plans to close a lane of traffic on Flatbush Avenue Extension for up to three years while it builds the gargantuan structure between Dekalb Avenue and Fleet Street, its rep revealed during a Community Board 2 transportation committee meeting last week.
Builder JDS Development plans to take over one of three Prospect Heights-bound traffic lanes and the parking spots adjacent to it during times the city considers “non-rush hours” — between 7 am and 4 pm — according to spokesman James Corral.
But the thoroughfare is pretty much busy at all hours — especially when Barclays Center hosts big events — and locals are already shuddering at the thought of traffic backing up for years to come.
“It’s the closure of one lane of traffic on a very highly trafficked avenue for those two to three years,” said committee member Juliette Cullen-Chung.
Neither the developer or Department of Transportation would say how far down the strip the closure will extend, through Corral did say that the parking spots in front of Junior’s near the corner of DeKalb would remain open throughout construction.
JDS still needs to get the department’s approval for the closure, but its chances look good — the agency’s Borough Planner Abigail Ikner actually told the meeting that the proposal had already been given the green light, though the agency later walked that back and said the developer has neither applied for nor received the okay.
Corral was ostensibly at the meeting to gain the committee’s blessing to stick a crane in already-closed Fleet Street during construction, which the panel approved.
The developer does not need to run the lane closure by the community board, however — that one is just up to the city.
When it is complete, the needle-like tower will rise 1,066 feet and incorporate the landmarked Dime Savings Bank at the base.
