It’s going to be a brave new year of development in Brooklyn, surpassing even the surge of projects in 2005, business leaders and lawmakers have pledged.
Between cruise ships and skyscrapers, basketball arenas and gourmet groceries, Brooklyn’s swiftly rising profile is set to go sky high in 2006.
Developers expect to break ground on the largest projects in the borough’s history this year, as ribbons will be cut on other monumental developments and still others will get the green light for future construction.
“It’s the supernova borough,” said Councilman David Yassky, whose Downtown-Brooklyn Heights district will host much of the development.
“You’ll see a lot of activity in Downtown Brooklyn in 2006 – much more than in 2005,” said Michael Burke, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Council, a pro-development group that spearheaded the massive rezoning that will bring skyscrapers to the business and civic district.
The state continues to make progress on the 1.3-mile Brooklyn Bridge Park on the Brooklyn Heights waterfront – the first major park in the borough since Prospect Park was built in the 1870s – and an accelerated development schedule was announced late last year.
The Red Hook waterfront will be virtually transformed this year with the completion of a massive gourmet Fairway supermarket and the start of an enormous Ikea homefurnishings store on one end and the opening of a cruise-ship port on the other.
The dock is expected to host the Queen Mary 2, the world’s largest luxury liner.
Downtown, the expansion of the popular Brooklyn Marriott hotel will be completed.
And that’s nothing compared to what’s scheduled to begin in 2006.
Shovels are expected to break ground on developer Bruce Ratner’s professional basketball arena in Prospect Heights (his New Jersey Nets are set to move there in 2008); the Thor Tower, a 60-story office, condominium and hotel tower in Downtown being built by Thor Equities; and a Whole Foods organic specialty market in Gowanus.
“Whole Foods and Fairway will increase the variety of culinary shopping experiences available to Brooklynites, and that’s always a good thing,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
“And I can’t tell you how many residents have told me they can’t wait for Ikea to open so they can stop schlepping to New Jersey or Long Island. And I look forward to resolving community concerns and moving forward on Brooklyn’s most exciting project, the major-league sports arena and the affordable housing that Atlantic Yards will bring to Brooklyn.”
One of the major catalysts of the borough’s building boom was the 2004 approval of the Downtown Brooklyn plan, which included a series of infrastructure upgrades and land-use changes.
“All of the work we put in on Downtown in 2004 and before that will start to come to fruition this year,” Burke said.
But others are wary of so much simultaneous development, fearing the borough could “drown” in the increased traffic.
Brian Ketchum, an urban-planning consultant, said, “If all of this gets built [every week], it will generate another half-million subways trips, another 100,000 to 120,000 car trips and 100,000 bus trips – and there is absolutely nothing being done to accommodate that.”
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Crowning the Borough of Kings (graphic)
1) Ikea
About: First New York City store for Swedish home-furnishings giant
Status: Construction to begin in the spring of 2006.
Completion date: Summer 2007
Size: 346,000 square feet
Location: New York Shipyard in Red Hook
Cost: $100M
2) Theatre for a New Audience
About: A 300-seat courtyard theater for off-Broadway company best known for its performances of Shakespeare and classic drama
Status: Design and fund-raising stage
Completion date: Hopes to break ground in 2007
Location: Flatbush Avenue at Lafayette Street
Cost: $35.8M
3) Coney Island Boardwalk
About: Entertainment, hotel and retail complex
Status: Public review will commence in 2006.
Completion date: Unknown
Size: 10 acres
Cost: $1B
4) The Junction
About: Three-story mall with 500-car multilevel garage to be anchored by a Target department store.
Status: Under construction
Completion date: Oct. 2007
Size: 300,000 square feet
Location: Flatbush and Nostrand avenues at Avenue H
Cost: $100M
5) Willoughby Square
About: Public park with 700 underground parking spaces intended as centerpiece for the city’s recent boost in height limits to lure private investment
Status: Designs to be finalized in early 2006 and construction to start in ’07.
Completion date: Unknown
Size: 1.5 acres
Location: Flatbush Avenue Extension and Willoughby Street
6) Brooklyn Bridge Park
About: A massive public waterfront park maintained by revenues drawn from condo highrises, hotel and commercial ventures within its boundaries
Status: Environmental review this year
Completion date: 2012
Size: 85 acres
Location: Waterfront from Jay Street in DUMBO to Atlantic Avenue in Cobble Hill
Cost: $150M
7) 19,000-seat Nets Arena
Status: Environmental review could finish this year. Construction would begin in spring.
Completion date: Projected 2008
Size: 850,000 square feet
Cost: Piece of larger $3.5 billion six-square-block office skyscraper, housing and retail space development
8) Fairway
About:Waterfront gourmet grocery store
Status: Under construction
Completion date: March 2006
Size: 52,000 square feet
9) Thor Tower
About: A 1.2 million-square-foot office, condominium and hotel tower
Status: Could break ground this year
Size: 60 stories
Location: at Willoughby Square
Cost: Estimated at several hundred million
10) Whole Foods
About: Organic market in Gowanus
Status: Breaking ground in spring
Completion date: 2007
Size: 42,000 square feet
11) Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal
About: Brooklyn cruiseship hub and future port of call for the Queen Mary 2
Status: Under construction
Completion date: April 2006
Location: Piers 11 and 12 in Red Hook
Cost: $30M
12) Marriott Expansion
Status: Additional wing is under construction.
Completion date: Fall 2006
Size: 24 stories/280 rooms
Cost: $77M