By Dennis Holt
Samuel Willoughby, if he were still around, could not have been a happy camper for the last few decades. The Downtown Brooklyn street named after him has become a rather shoddy thoroughfare, and people would often wonder what they were doing on it.

That is all going to change in the next few years, and change big time. In fact, what is planned for Willoughby Street will probably produce more change than on any other street in Downtown Brooklyn. According to information provided by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, there are 11 different projects in the works for the seven blocks of Willoughby Street that may cost up to $2 billion to complete. Only five years ago, if someone had predicted only one of them, it would have been met with laughter.

Also, the projects reported by the partnership don’t include two public efforts (parks at both ends) nor the potential development of the MTA Building facing Jay Street on the Willoughby corner.

There will be major projects at both ends of the street. At the western end, developer Joshua Muss will fulfill a long wish by converting two floors (about 45,000 square feet) at 345 Adams St. into retail space. This city-owned building faces Adams, Willoughby and Pearl Streets.

That modest beginning will lead to about 900,000 square feet of new retail space highlighted by the other project at the eastern end — Albee Square Center. This large mixed-use development will add about 900 residential units, 600,000 square feet of retail shopping and 125,000 square feet of office space.

This project will also have a major impact on the eastern end of Fulton Mall and Flatbush Avenue Extension. The old Albee Square Mall and its unsightly parking garage will vanish.

Although no exact building size has been determined, it is quite possible that Albee Square Center could become the tallest building in Brooklyn.

As part of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan, a park called Willoughby Square Park, between Gold and Duffield Streets, is in the works. Along with it there will be two hotels with about 500 rooms on the other side of Duffield that hadn’t been planned. The Lam Group is building two different hotels, the taller of which will probably rise 22 stories.

(Samuel Willoughby would be pleased with this news; he married Margaretta Duffield, and maybe one of the hotels should be named The Margaretta.)

People have begun to stop by the old Verizon Building at 7 MetroTech in impressive numbers. Not to pay their phone bills, but to explore places to live. That Art Deco structure is being converted into 244 condos and 89,000 square feet of retail space. Living on Willoughby Street will no longer sound funny. A major project that is being fleshed out by developer Al Laboz would redevelop the Conway Building (the former Offerman Building) facing Duffield Street, which also fronts on Fulton Street. He would spend more than $75 million to create about 144,000 square feet of new retail and 72,000 square feet of office space.

Five other projects are in the planning stage in the Willoughby Corridor, including one by St. Boniface Church that could add a minimum of 800 residential units, plus 53,000 square feet of retail space and 60,000 square feet of church office space.

These projects could total more than 2 million square feet.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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