A major theater operator has expressed interest in redeveloping the Loew's Kings Theater, a ranking city official, who requested anonymity, told the blog
Brooklyn Junction.
Loew's, where Barbra Streisand worked as a teenager and Borough President Marty Markowitz received his first kiss, has been a hulking blight on Flatbush Avenue in the decades since it was closed.
Back in Sept. 2006, the city Economic Development Corporation made an effort to find a developer who would refurbish the majestic movie house in exchange for greater building rights on the site. The Eagle
reported in November that a handful of developers could be on the city's short list, but at the time Markowitz said, “I don’t think the Loew’s Kings Theater will be renovated while I’m borough president."
Markowitz added that the ratio of public to private dollars for the project is still being settled. According to the Junction, the estimated cost of restoration is $20 to $40 million dollars. The blog's source said the city, before announcing anything about the proposal, "is trying to put everything together -- dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's -- because of how previous proposals for the redevelopment of the theater have fallen apart in the past."
First proposed in 2005, a supermarket on the ground-floor level of One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the luxury condominium conversion that would help finance the park’s maintenance through earmarked property taxes, is still on the table, reported
The Brooklyn Paper.
“Our initial push is for a high-end market with prepared food,” said a spokesman for developer RAL Companies. He said the developer is also looking to fill the ground floor with two restaurants, a gallery or special events venue, and small shops.
Ian Levine, son of developer Robert Levine and a managing partner in the project, told the Eagle, “It won’t be a huge supermarket because there’s not the space there.” Instead, it would be a “local-type” market catering to the residents and parkgoers, who could assemble a picnic from the prepared foods section, he said, calming some fears of a destination store like Whole Foods. Ian said he’s interested in putting local businesses in the retail space that would cater to both groups of people, such as an ice cream store.
The Brooklyn Paper took a different spin on the news that the city Department of Correction decided to scrap a plan to add residential or commercial towers to the Brooklyn House of Detention complex. As first reported in the
Eagle, after only getting one unfavorable response from a developer, the Department intends to proceed with reopening and doubling capacity at the jail, with a strong possibility of ground floor retail along Atlantic Avenue. But the Paper reported on an aside suggestion made at a meeting between the Department and community stakeholder groups as the main objective: "City Plan would put middle school in Brooklyn House of Detention."
Based on second-hand sources, the Paper reported that at the meeting, held Jan. 2, “Corrections [sic] Commissioner Horn told a group of local pols and community activists... that he is considering housing a new middle school in the jail.” Councilman David Yassky, according to the Paper, “strongly supported the idea.”
Perhaps it's like that middle school game of telephone, where the original message gets distorted two or three kids down the line, but the Eagle was given a different story. Several people at that meeting, and Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello, said Horn favors simply doubling the jail's capacity, with retail being a favored additional use on that block. Those at the meeting said the idea of the school was only brought up in passing, and that it piqued Yassky's interest as he has wanted to put a new middle school somewhere in his district. Morello told the Eagle a school would be highly unlikely for some of the same reasons (http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=5&id=14363) residential or office uses didn't work at that complex. The structures would have to be arranged in such a way so the inmates and, in this case, schoolchildren, couldn't see each other, and so the queue of visitors wouldn't intermingle with the crowds of children coming in an out of class, for example.
— 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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