By Dennis Holt
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — In a surprise development, this newspaper has learned that Forest City Ratner Companies plans to build the largest residential building so far announced east of Flatbush Avenue.

A structure with 369 residential units is proposed to be built on property Forest City owns at 623 Fulton St., also known as 80 DeKalb Ave., which is between Hudson Avenue and Rockwell Place, and Fulton and DeKalb.

Until recently, a low-rise building known as 10 MetroTech, although it was not technically part of the MetroTech Complex, stood on the site. The building was recently demolished.

The new building is planned to rise 36 stories, standing at 405 feet and taking up approximately 370,000 square feet. At the moment, all of the 369 residential units are planned as rentals. There was no information at press time about whether some of the units might be affordable.

Applications were filed early in the year with the Department of Buildings, more or less “announcing� this project. The builders plan to begin construction next year, and a building of this size will probably take two years to complete.

It appears that no major variances are needed for this project. At 405 feet, the new building would conform to the height guidelines of 415 feet as set in the 2004 rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn.

Although the site is not technically within the BAM Cultural District, it joins the 28-story Forte residential building in the next block on Fulton Street. Both will be influenced by the nearby new district.

(Various projects are in the design phase for the BAM Cultural District. All together, they could cost $500 million and lead to 350 residential units.)

The new development, which could turn out to be the first residential-only project from Forest City in Brooklyn, joins a growing list of high-rise apartment buildings that are beginning to dot the Downtown Brooklyn skyline, many of them along what planners are calling the Flatbush Avenue corridor.

Most of these first units are clustered around Tillary Street and Myrtle Avenue, but with this planned development, a critical mass is being created in the southern part of the Downtown area. The planned Atlantic Yards development would be even further south, bordering on Prospect Heights, and is expected to create more than 5,400 residential units.

The architect for this building is Costas Kondylis & Partners, a firm in Manhattan with a long record of building residential buildings. Longtime observers in Downtown Brooklyn may also remember this as the site of the Barton Candy factory, facing DeKalb Avenue.

Forest City Ratner declined to offer any comments at this time; however, the project is listed on the Forest City Web site as part of the organization’s “New York Portfolio.� A formal announcement is expected before the end of the year.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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