Two-Trees Bringing 32-Story Apartment Tower to Downtown Brooklyn

 The transformation of the BAM Cultural District is barreling forward. Two Trees is beginning the public review and approval process for a 32-story tower (right, click for big) in Downtown Brooklyn, just across the street from Atlantic Center. The site is currently a parking lot bound by Flatbush, Ashland Place, and Lafayette Avenue, and we last talked about it way back in 2008 when news first broke that Two Trees would be developing the project. Back then, the building was going to have 180 apartments and 187,000-square-feet of cultural space, but now it will have 300-400 apartments, 20 percent of which will be affordable, and just 50,000-square-feet of cultural space.

It will also have a sprawling 16,000-square-foot public plaza along Flatbush Avenue and 23,000-square-feet of ground floor retail. Enrique Norten of Ten Arquitectos is still the project architect, and the arts space will be shared by BAM, 651 ARTS, and the Brooklyn Public Library.

In partnership with the Gotham Organization and DT Salazar, the HPD is developing another new apartment building and cultural community space on a lot bound by Fulton Street, Rockwell Place, and Ashland Place. This building will be 515,000-square-feet, and it will contain a whopping 600 apartments, plus 40,000-square-feet of cultural, retail, and office space. Half of the apartments will be affordable, and 40 percent of the affordable units will be two-bedrooms. The HDC expects to finalize financing for the project late next year, and construction will begin shortly after.

And last but not least, the HPD has released an RFP for the development of the final parcel of the BAM Cultural District. The site is located at Ashland Place and Lafayette Avenue, and the RFP calls for 100,000-square-feet of floor area, with a minimum of 15,000-square-feet being dedicated to cultural groups. The building can also include apartments and/or commercial space. Proposals are due February 1, 2013.
With the Atlantic Yards towers also going up, this area of Brooklyn is getting kind of crowded, not to mention that all these new residents will be living in a perpetual construction site.

by Jessica Dailey