Hotel? No tell.
The owners of a vacant four-story apartment building across the street from the Brooklyn Academy of Music have put the site on the market — and they’re trying to generate excitement by marketing it as the perfect “hotel opportunity.”
“The location is irreplaceable,” said David Hubschman, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman, referring to the world-renowned cultural institution steps away and the Barclays Center basketball arena two blocks to the south that will be completed next year.
“Just think about all the cultural events,” Elliman added. “You’re talking about hundreds of hotel rooms a year.”
In other words, it’s now worth $5.5 million — up from the $3.4 million that the current owners paid in 2007.
Current zoning allows roughly six stories in height, but air rights from a neighboring building, plus the inclusion of a community space, would allow the new owners to build more. A rendering put out by the sellers shows a nine-story hotel, featuring a rooftop deck.
There is no guarantee that the purchasers will build a hotel, though hoteliers remain bullish on Brooklyn.
Ever since the Marriott Hotel on Adams Street doubled its capacity in 2006, the borough has been on a room binge. Gowanus has become home to several small hotels, and two more hotels will join Hotel Le Jolie in Williamsburg, including a 73-room lodge by DUMBO titans David and Jed Walentas.
Duffield Street just to the west of the BAM Cultural District will soon by home to four new hotels.
Throughout this hotel craze, the BAM Cultural District has remained a bed-and-breakfast area only — though that will likely change when Bruce Ratner’s basketball arena is done.
“A hotel is something that has been proposed for a long time,” said Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Fort Greene).
“People are anticipating the arena, which would necessitate a hotel.”
The cultural district is slated to be Brooklyn’s version of Lincoln Center, but it has undergone considerable yet troubled development in the last few years. Music venues and gallery spaces have flourished, but several larger apartment buildings and a performing arts branch of the Brooklyn Public Library all faltered during the recession.
But a proposed 42-story residential tower on Fulton Street and Rockwell Place is moving ahead, adding 347 apartments within two years.
