Continuing the discussion from NEW YORK | Flatbush Ave Corridor (DoBro + BAM + PP):
Permits Filed: 14-Story Tower Planned for Downtown Brooklyn, 285 Schermerhorn Street
BY: STEPHEN SMITH ON OCTOBER 6TH 2014 AT 6:30 AM
285 Schermerhorn Street, image from Google Maps
Last year, the Brooklyn Eagle reported that Brooklyn Community Services was “in listening mode” for offers on its seven-story downtown Brooklyn headquarters, calling out TF Cornerstone as a possible buyer.
The land hasn’t traded hands yet, but a new building application filed with the Department of Buildings has revealed the developer for 285 Schermerhorn Street: Second Development Services, or SDS. The Brooklyn Heights-based firm plans to double the size of the existing office building, bringing it to 14 stories, and turning it into a 106-unit, 91,000-square foot apartment tower.
285 Schermerhorn Street, image from Bing Maps
The architect, listed on the permit as GF55 Partners, described the job as “a vertical enlargement and conversion of [an] existing building,” which means that the handsome prewar structure’s façade may be retained.
SDS has a few high-design projects under its belt, and hopefully 285 Schermerhorn will be another. Richard Meier’s On Prospect Park is perhaps their most famous, another two are under development. Just a few blocks away, The Vos Hotel at 95 Rockwell Place has a glass curtain wall that looks like it was rattled in an earthquake, and in Manhttan, 22 Bond Street is as attractive and avant garde as one would expect for a starchitect-studded corridor in NoHo.
In addition to 285 Schermerhorn’s apartments – which are rental-sized, averaging 800 square feet each – there will be 6,600 square feet of commercial space, including retail and office, on floors one and two. The building includes no parking, which is generally only allowed in downtown Brooklyn if 20 percent of the apartments are set aside as affordable housing. It will, however, have enough space to park 54 bicycles.
The project will sit next to a much larger one, on the site of the massive parking structure at Schermerhorn and Bond. There, at 33 Bond Street, TF Cornerstone will soon start construction on a quite substantial 714-unit rental building.
