Bklink: Hotel Fischer

Work has started on the Indigo Hotel, the big hotel on Duffield Street designed by the ubiquitous Karl Fischer. It will be 22 stories and have 164 rooms and was originally supposed to be completed.--Brownstoner

Bklink: Toren! Toren! Toren!

The big Toren condo, which is now rising on Flatbush Avenue at Myrtle, will be one of the most distinctive new buildings in Brooklyn. In fact, it would be stand out in Manhattan. Its big sales office on Gold Street just opened. Here's a looking around, including a video of the developer and sales manager showing off the development and the office. (Play the vid by clicking on it.)--Curbed

Brookspring: Fulton Street in Bloom

Fulton Street, Downtown Brooklyn

Bklink: Flip or Flop?

Developer Joe Sitt flip his Albee Square property because he wanted to make a killing or because he failed to find a way to develop it? "Sitt paid $25 million for the mall in 2001, floating plans to build a roughly 1 million-square-foot tower, but instead sold it last year to Acadia Realty Trust for $125 million after making relatively minor improvements. Chris Havens, who has long worked in the Downtown Brooklyn market, said Sitt actually tried to find investors and an anchor tenant for the tower but came up dry."--Brownstoner

Meet Toren on Flatbush Avenue

This is a new condo tower designed by SOM called Toren that is currently going up on Flatbush Avenue at Myrtle (150 Myrtle) that will clock in at 38 stories. A very heavy-duty marketing campaign for it has just kicked off. It's fair to say that it's the most distinctive tower proposed for Brooklyn so far and it's certain to inspire a variety of reactions from strong like to something quite the opposite. We like the way the rendering makes the building appear to be in the middle of an empty and verdant park rather than surrounded by buildings on Flatbush Ave.

Here Goes Again: City Wants Bigger Jail with Retail

The city has gone back to the drawing board with its plans for the Brooklyn House of Detention. Last week, it released a new RFP for the facility that, among other things, calls for "additional housing for 720 inmates in twelve dormitories of sixty beds each," which is basically a doubling in size. We know this because the "Brooklyn House of Detention Community Stakeholders Group," which has set up its own website, got hold of the RFP to double the jail and posted it. The group sent out an email blast yesterday saying the city hadn't invited the community to a meeting on Thursday or told it about the RFP. The last RFP attracted an ambitious proposal for an alternative program on the site, condos, rental apartments and retail. It was not considered by the city. The timeline for the jail expansion takes it far beyond the end of the Bloomberg Administration. The Stakeholders group emerged in March and set up its own website with the catch name, brooklynjail.org.

Bklink: You Can't Photograph That, Continued

Another week, another tale of a photographer and/or blogger being told by someone on a public street not to take photos. (It happened to us on Friday on Beard Street in Red Hook via a private security guard who stopped his car and said, "You can't take any pictures here. Don't take any pictures.") We digress, however. "McBrooklyn was standing on the sidewalk on the north side of Willoughby Street (near the corner of Duffield/Oratory Place) in Downtown Brooklyn, taking a photo of the new Sheraton hotel going up on Duffield...A uniformed guard told us to stop taking pictures of the hotel -- because photography was not allowed on the sidewalk in front of his Willoughby Street building."--McBrooklyn

Opposition to Brooklyn Jail Proposal Organizes a Little

The Brooklyn House of Detention expansion proposal now has an organization called the Brooklyn House of Detention Stakeholders Group working to "keep the community informed of the ongoing struggle against expansion of the Brooklyn House of Detention." Their website is brooklynjail.org. Quite a few groups near the facility, which the city wants to reopen and double in size, bitterly oppose the plan. The group says the city ignored a "visionary plan" to redevelop the facility. The proposal from Time Equities and Hamlin Ventures would have added condos and rental housing, but replaced the jail with alternative incarceration and treatment programs. Groups involved in the "stakeholders" effort include the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, 53 Boerum Place Condominium, the Boerum Hill Association, Brooklyn Vision Foundation, Cobble Hill Association and State Street Houses Association.

Bklink: Stacked Mannequin

It's rare to find a mannequin with such cleavage, or even to pay attention to one, but this one at Dr. Jay's in Downtown Brooklyn is "falling out of her dress stacked."--McBrooklyn

Piano Finito: Big Ratner Tower is Dead

The 100-story tall Renzo Piano tower at Tillary and Jay Street that would have been developed by Bruce Ratner is dead. Both the Daily News and the Brooklyn Paper report the tower has fallen victim to rising costs and the credit crunch. Forest City Ratner would have built a dorm and lab for City Tech in return for $300 million and land to build the Piano tower, estimated at 70-100 stories tall. A CUNY exec told the Brooklyn Paper that it was a "was a mutual decision" and a statement said "timing and complexities" of development didn't match with the school's "immediate need." City Council Member David Yassky, however, blamed finances, saying Ratner "may be overextended right now." He added that "a lot of developers are re-evaluating their numbers and feel that residential buildings don’t work right now." CUNY will go ahead with building a new lab and dorm, probably in the range of 10 stories.

Bklink: Meaty Rendering

There's a rendering of the much-hyped new Morton's that will open in the Brooklyn Marriott . "We were delighted to receive this here rendering of the 14,000 square foot restaurant-to-be. Conclusion: Peter Luger, all is forgiven."--Eater

Citypoint Tower: 65 Stories on Flatbush

The Citypoint website for the project that is going up on the site of the Albee Square Mall doesn't go out of its way to highlight the height of the tower that will rise with the huge development planned for the site. (Brownstoner first drew attention to the site on Monday.) In fact, most renderings of the project has downplayed the tall building. A small rendering appears on the project's website and a somewhat larger one has popped up on the Greenberg Farrow website. The building is planned at 65 stories, far taller than the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, which is Brooklyn's tallest structure. Here's what the architect's website has to say about the development:

City Point will enliven an already bustling office and retail district in the heart of Brooklyn. Next to the Metrotech office complex and along two major thoroughfares in central Brooklyn, this 1.9 million square foot development features over 500,000 square feet of retail, approximately 280 hotel rooms and 800 residential units along with 250,000 square feet of offices. This signature tower will rise to over 65 stories, rising above the Brooklyn skyline.

Is 65 stories too tall for Flatbush Avenue? Will there be any questions raised about the size of the Citypoint tower? Stay tuned.

Bklink: Times Visits Fulton Mall

In the days before Christmas, the Fulton Mall is one very busy and un-bland place. It's "a chaotic throwback to the era before the sanitization and, yes, mallification of New York City’s retail districts. For every Nextel or Children’s Place or Foot Locker on the mall there is an immigrant-run mom-and-pop store offering off-brand electronics or no-brand suits or a trifecta of cellphones, gold teeth and sneakers."--NYT

Brookyule #1: Borough Hall Edition

Borough Hall, Brooklyn[Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Hilary/flickr]

Bklink: IHOPBK is Here

The downtown IHOP at Livingston and Bond Streets is now open and there is talk of customers forsaking Junior's. Turns out the IHOP owner has his hand in the hip hop business.--NYDN

Bklink: Downtown Brooklyn Luxe Retail?

"A high-end steakhouse chain and luxury retailers are expected to set up shop along a drab street near the Brooklyn Bridge, the Daily News has learned. The steakhouse and as many as six luxury clothiers and other retailers will move into the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge and two floors of an adjacent city-owned building on Adams St."--NYDN

Brooklyn Getting a Really Big Piano

Anyone that still doubts Brooklyn will be a very different looking (and feeling) place in a few years, might want to take a look at these renderings of the City Tech Tower that Bruce Ratner wants to build at Jay and Tillary Streets. The rendering made the rounds yesterday after it was first posted on the Wired New York Forum on Thanksgiving Weekend and then picked up by the 110 Livingston Blog. It is widely noted in print media followups today. The building will be very glassy (note the Empire State Building reflection) in the tower and quite tall. The estimates on Wired ranged from 850-1,000 feet. Jotham Sederstrom reports in the Daily News that the rendering "may not reflect the developer's current vision" for the building. Even at a reduced height, however, it may still be taller than the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building.

Upcoming: Holiday Craft Fair

It almost hurts to type "Holiday Craft Fair" as we're still getting over the end of summer, yet there it is. The Brooklyn Friends School is having its Annual Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, December 1st from 10AM to 5PM at 375 Pearl Street in Downtown Brooklyn near the Marriott. It will feature ceramics, sweaters, scarves, jewelry and one-of-a-kind items from more than 40 vendors. There will also be activities for children. More info is available at www.brooklynfriends.org and there's also a great item on the fair over at Pardon Me for Asking, which does a superb job of chronicling things in Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus and environs.

The Brooklyn 2012 Vid

Someone finally posted a clean copy of that "Downtown Brooklyn 2012" video narrated by Sir Ian McKellen on YouTube without commercials or the New York Post logo, so we're embedding it below. Regardless of how one feels about the vision that's presented--strongly pro, strongly con or somewhere in between--it's definitely worth five minutes of any Brooklynite's time.

Public Comments About Underground Railroad Houses

Yesterday was the last day for public comment in the (redone) eminent domain proceedings for a variety of properties in downtown Brooklyn. We got a copy of the comment submitted by Phil De Paolo of the New York Commmunity Council and thought we'd share a couple of short excerpts:

We see a gross injustice taking place on Duffield St...There is a long oral tradition of the buildings on Duffield St being part of the Underground Railroad, and while it is certain that a family of abolitionists, the Truesdells, lived at 227 Duffield Street, that venerable building is scheduled to go under the wrecking ball, along with 231 and 233 Duffield Street, to make way for a parking lot that would serve a hotel now under construction nearby...A city funded report that denies any Underground Railroad activity along Duffield Street isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. The report, issued in April by AKRF, said that 227 Duffield St., as well as neighboring buildings, was not used to spirit 19th-century slaves to freedom. The city and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership are simply trying to hide the inconvenient truth of Duffield Street’s Abolitionist history. It would be a terrible shame to tear these buildings down, there needs to be more research, an archaeological study.

The city’s conclusion that there’s no evidence of Underground Railroad history is fundamentally flawed and, therefore, cannot form the basis for the destruction of what many believe to be an Underground Railroad station where abolitionists helped runaway slaves hide and escape to freedom...our environmental review process is being corrupted by biased and incompetent consultants who prepare environmental impact statements that are framed in a way that take us away from reality.

(All of the comments submitted were directed to a gentleman named Jack Hammer, which is utterly fascinating in the case of controversial potential demolitions.) The city was moving ahead with the eminent domain process before it was forced to stop and go through the hearing and public comment process again.