The NY Times published an article about the 30 Washington Street building conversion, which will be about 100 rental apartments and will take about a year to renovate. Writer Jake Mooney includes some other nuggest of information, including a reference to how Dumbo’s housing market is doing well.
Brooklyn Paper also mentioned last month that Dumbo rents are higher than most of Manhattan. With the limited inventory in the neighborhood, the average price of a studio in Dumbo was $2,567 per month ($300 more than last year and $458 more than the average studio price in the Lower East Side), writes Brooklyn Paper.
With 205 Water Street, 220 Water Street, 37 Bridge Street (Kirkman Lofts), 192 Water Street, and 133 Water Street added to the real estate mix, real estate developers are trying to meet the demand in the area.
The other item mentioned in the NY Times article is the long-planned 400-unit Dock Street project next to the Brooklyn Bridge is to begin in July. Currently, a parking garage and lot occupy the space where the Dock Street project will break ground (photo above). We spoke with the garage staff who mentioned that they are no longer offering monthly parking there and renters have been notified that they will have to find other garage space by June to prepare for the Dock Street project.
The parking lot at 35 Front Street has been cleared out this morning and workers have loaded piles of dirt on the lot. This is the space where the controversial Dock Street building is being planned. However, the dirt is there for a Land Rover derby event this weekend, according to workers on site. People will be able to test drive a Land Rover. The dirt course will be cleaned up after the weekend for parking use.
St. Ann’s Warehouse announced its 2011-12 season lineup, its final season in Dumbo. A court ruling in July ended St. Ann’s chances of moving to a new home at the Tobacco Warehouse in the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The ruling nullified a set of decisions by the federal, state and city governments over the last several years that led to approval of a new home for the St. Ann’s Warehouse at the Tobacco Warehouse. St. Ann’s has to move from its current space after this season to make way for a new residential development, known as Dock Street Dumbo, which is taking its place.
NY Times reports that the 2011-2012 season will begin Oct. 12 with a multimedia musical, “Stop the Virgens,” created by Karen O of the rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, among others, and directed by the playwright Adam Rapp. It runs through Oct. 22.
St. Ann’s Artistic Director Susan Feldman sent an email this summer that vented her disappointment over the collateral damage that resulted after neighborhood and preservation organizations filed the suit to stop the transfer of the Tobacco Warehouse to private hands. At this point, St. Ann’s is still looking for temporary and permanent quarters for its 2012-13 season and beyond. Dumbo area residents can provide support for St. Ann’s by attending their shows or becoming a member. To see current season’s lineup or how to become a member, go to stannswarehouse.org/current_season.php.
Two Trees Management, the developer of the proposed mixed-use Dock Street Dumbo building in Dumbo, Brooklyn, today announced the completion of an agreement with the NYC School Construction Authority (SCA) for the creation of a new, 300-seat public middle school at Dock Street Dumbo. This is a requirement for there to be a public school on this site. According to a press release, the “signed agreement legally formalizes the commitment made by Two Trees to area families, residents and elected officials during the land use approval process that the project would include the approx. 45,000 square foot school and that the developer would donate the cost of the construction of the school’s core and shell”.
In June 2009, City Council made the decision to approve the rezoning of the development project on Dock Street (between Front and Water Street) in Dumbo. The Dock Street project has been controversial when oppostion uncovered evidence of the School Construction Authority’s alleged corruption and argued that the 17 story building design was not contexual to its surroundings and will overshadow the Brooklyn Bridge. The press release references a pending lawsuit: “A construction schedule for Dock Street Dumbo has not yet been formalized, pending the resolution of a potential legal appeal. While a lawsuit by two Dumbo residents against the project was dismissed in October 2010 by a State Supreme Court judge, the plaintiffs have filed a notice of appeal and it unclear at this point whether they plan to follow up with the filing of the actual appeal.”
The McBrooklyn blog notes that the agreement has long been approved and budgeted for by the SCA, so why is this announced now? Is it related to the letter-writing campaign and petition started by P.S. 8’s PTA to extend their school through the 8th grade?
“Principal Seth Phillips is about a week away from turning in the required paperwork and support for a P.S. 8 middle school is building in the community.
Could this be the SCA’s way of killing P.S. 8’s expansion plans?
If so, SCA is wrong. P.S. 8 alone holds more than 500 kids. The Dock Street middle school — if it is ever built (note lawsuit appeals have not yet been heard) — would serve 300 kids coming from all over District 13. About 20 schools would be feeding into Dock Street middle school, not just P.S. 8.
Meanwhile, P.S. 8 kids have nowhere to go after they leave elementary school. It’s time for a P.S. 8 middle school.
Brooklyn Heights Blog notes that Two Trees hopes to “break ground at Dock Street by spring of 2012 and to have the school ready for use by the school year beginning in 2014.”
Not so great news for Two Trees Management developer Jed Walentas, but The Brooklyn Paper reports that an email leak “that he was pleased that the folks from “the projects” didn’t show up and make a “total racial mess” by opposing his controversial Dock Street project at a 2009 public hearing.” This article demonstrates that racial politics was a strategy they employed in order to win.
According to a Two Trees spokesperson, the email, to Brooklyn Bridge Park President Regina Myer, was misinterpreted and “describe how Markowitz and James had rightly decided to focus on the size and scale issues related to the development itself, not the ever-contentious subject of whether a new public middle school would attract minority students from outside DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights”.
However, Dock Street Dumbo opposition would note that they did turn out what were people from public housing at the prior hearing for the Community Board on December 17, 2008. According to the email from Jed Walentas, they made a decision not to do the same at the borough president’s meeting: “[Fort Greene Councilwoman] Tish [James] and Marty [Markowitz] agreed to not turn out dozens from the projects and make it a total racial mess.” This shows the collusion between developers and the city as we previously posted about.
