Rezoned Williamsburg Attracts Development

Construction starts on the first project to take advantage of last year's rezoning of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint districts for residential development. In New Jersey, a new tower on the Hudson tops out.

Williamsburg Takes Off

The first residential project under new zoning rules in the Williamsburg and Greenpoint districts of Brooklyn broke ground this summer.

The first phase of the mixed-use development at 164 Kent Ave. in Williamsburg will consist of two buildings comprising 300 residential units, 113 of which will be reserved for families of four earning $21,300 to $56,700, according to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office.

One building, Palmer's Dock, serves as the affordable housing component of the project. L&M Equity Participants of Larchmont, N.Y., and Dunn Development, an affordable-housing developer based in Brooklyn, are jointly developing the project using $12 million worth of low-income housing credits provided by the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal and $6.5 million in credits from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The affordable housing component is administered through the city's inclusionary zoning program, which allows greater building density to developers that reserve at least 20 percent of units to lower-income tenants.

The six-story building designed by two New York-based architects, FXFowle Architects and Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, will include 125,000 sq. ft. for residential units, 18,000 sq. ft. of retail space, and a landscaped roof. Kreisler Borg Florman of Scarsdale, N.Y., is the construction manager on the project.

The second building, Northside Piers, a market-rate tower financed with $300 million from Citibank Community Development, is being developed by a separate joint venture between L&M Equity RD Management of New York and Toll Brothers of Horsham, Pa.

Palmer's Dock and Northside Piers are the first of several large residential projects in the rezoned area of northern Brooklyn that are expected to add more than 10,000 units of housing overall in the next few years.

Directly to the south, developer Louis Kestenbaum of Brooklyn is about to break ground at the Cass Gilbert-designed 184 Kent Avenue, a warehouse that lost its landmark status in a City Council vote this year. The project will add several floors and convert the former industrial building into condominiums.

North of Palmer's Dock, Douglaston Development of New York is expected to break ground on the Edge, a new three-block complex of high-rise residential towers designed by Mexican-born architect Enrique Norten.

110 Livingston Converts to Condos

The former Board of Education building in Brooklyn is being reinvented as luxury condominiums that are slated to open in March.

The building at 110 Livingston St., located at the nexus of Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, and Boerum Hill, was designed by early 20th century New York architects McKim Mead and White and became the home of the Board of Education in the 1930s.

Two Trees Management, a Brooklyn-based developer with various buildings in the District Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass neighborhood in its portfolio, purchased 110 Livingston for $45 million three years ago after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg moved school system administrators to the Tweed Courthouse next to City Hall in Manhattan.

The project team, with New York's Beyer Blinder Belle and Ismael Leyva Architects as designers, is adding four floors and converting the building into 300 units starting at $370,000. There are one, two, and three -bedroom layouts along with several penthouses. Two Trees is acting as construction manager.

The units feature high-end appliances, bamboo floors, and marble decks. Amenities include a fitness center, 24-hour concierge, and landscaped courtyard.

New Middle School in Peekskill

Construction started this spring on a new middle school in Peekskill, N.Y. The $42 million, four-story building designed by Peter Gisolfi Associates of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., will serve 800 students.

The 140,000-sq.-ft. building will be subdivided into two sets of classrooms and a third component that will contain an auditorium, cafeteria, gym, and swimming pool. The project also includes an outdoor playing field.

Andron Construction of Goldens Bridge, N.Y., is construction manger on the project, slated for completion in fall 2007. O'Dea, Lynch, Abbattista of Hawthorne, N.Y., is mechanical engineer and New York's Anastos Engineering Associates is structural engineer.

Manhattan-Style Tower in N.J.

A new residential tower topped off this summer along New Jersey's Hudson River-hugging "Gold Coast."

Developed by New York-based Tarragon Corp. and designed by New York's Gruzen Samton, the 15-story brick and glass One Hudson Park in Edgewater will feature 168 one- to three-bedroom units, ranging from $400,000 to $2 million in price. It will have an indoor pool, garage, fitness center, landscaped rooftop, park with a pond, and concierge service. The apartments will have balconies, some with views of Manhattan.

Tarragon refused to disclose the 439,000-sq.-ft. tower's cost. Edgewater-based Daibes Construction, the construction manager, is slated to finish the building next spring.

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