Carroll Gardens residents will be relieved to know that Daniel Hollander, senior managing director for The Clarett Group, confirmed Assemblywoman Joan Millman’s account, first reported in the
Eagle, that its project at 340 Court St. would rise no higher than seven stories. Though the former International Longshoreman’s Association Building could be razed and replaced with a 17-story building (not 21 stories, as previously thought), Hollander said Clarett is more interested in building “a contextual project.”
Hollander explained that a 17-story tower would require more open space, whereas roughly the same number of units could fit into the more squat, and palatable, building. “We just thought it was much more appropriate for this neighborhood, and we thought it would be better received by our neighbors and our customers,” he said.
Millman and a number of residents were alarmed when they heard Clarett bought the 44,000-square-foot lot after referencing the developer’s Web site and finding only pictures of towers. Hollander said a good reference for this particular project would be the Web site of Rogers Marvel Architects, the firm behind the award-winning townhouses in the Boerum Hill section of State Street, and also retained for this project. “We don’t have the design yet, but [Smith Street] is indicative of their work, and we’re not trying to do something that’s not contextual with the neighborhood.”
While Clarett’s other Brooklyn project, Forté in Fort Greene, rises 30 stories and is marketed to a younger crowd, with studios and smaller multi-bedroom apartments, he said Court Street would be geared toward established families. Most of the 30 to 40 condo units on Court Street would be three or four bedrooms, at 1,800 to 2,200 square feet for a three-bedroom, compared to Forté’s 1,600 square feet. Some will be maisonettes and duplexes, both of which have two levels, and all would have 10- to 14-feet-high ceilings. Roughly 10 townhouses would be split between the Sackett and Union Street sides, he said.
Hollander said a fitness room and children’s room would be amenities in the condominium portion of the project, and hopes to provide one parking space per unit. “That’s our goal,” said Hollander. “It depends on how much room there is, but that’s what we’re aiming for.”
As for private rooftop cabanas, one of the more recent trends in Brooklyn real estate, Hollander said, “We’ve thought about it. It depends if there’s room or not, but a large percentage of the apartments will have private outdoor space. We may have some rooftop cabanas because the views are pretty nice, even at seven stories. We’re really aiming to deliver the best condo product in the area.”
He confirmed that there would be 14,000 square feet of retail on Court Street, but “we are not actively in the market right now [searching for a tenant], and there’s no plans to put a grocery store there in particular.”
A potential slowdown in the real estate market doesn’t concern Hollander, at least with this project, because there’s not a lot of new, large residential units geared toward families in the area to compete with. “Markets are highly localized and as I look around in the area, I don’t see much new product coming online at all and certainly not in as good a location as this one.” He declined to say how sales are going at Forté.
As for the long-awaited, and much-demanded, rezoning of Carroll Gardens,
The Gowanus Lounge posted a letter from City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden to Borough President Marty Markowitz, in which she indicates the process could take a fairly long time.
“We are aware that members of the community are concerned about out-of-context development in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood. We agree that a study of Carroll Gardens is warranted and are committed to pursuing it. However, because of the numerous neighborhood rezoning efforts we have underway in communities throughout Brooklyn, we are unable to commit to a precise timeframe,” she wrote. Since Bloomberg took office, she said 78 rezoning proposals have been adopted into law, representing over 5,000 blocks, including Greenpoint/Williamsburg, Park Slope, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, Midwood, and Downtown Brooklyn.
— Compiled by Sarah Ryley
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues.
So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
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