DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN

Co-op and condo boards can get a glimpse of the electric future.

Judge dismisses lawsuit against a Brooklyn condo’s $1 million facade repair.

Brooklyn condo building devotes a terrace to growing food.

Court says denying access to documents is an illegal abuse of board power.

Yesterday we reported that Brooklyn is about to get its first supertall building – a 1,066-foot-tall residential tower adjacent to the iconic Dime Savings Bank in downtown. Today we can report that the push-back has already begun against what will be the borough’s tallest building.

Mario Messina, who runs the nonprofit coalition New Yorkers for a Human-Scale City, tells am New York, “These tall buildings turn the neighborhood into high-rise wastelands. When the developers see that they don’t have any more room to butcher Manhattan, they will go elsewhere.” 

City Councilman Jumaane Williams, chairman of the council’s housing committee, called the 73-story tower “concerning” because there has been little input from the community about its possible effects. “We have to build, but we have to build with measure,” Williams said. “This is happening too quickly.”

The next hurdle for the project, which is being developed by JDS Development Group and the Chetrit Group, is a hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission, since plans call for altering the adjacent Dime Savings Bank, a city landmark.

Developers have submitted plans for a 1,066-foot supertall building in downtown Brooklyn, nearly double the height of anything in the neighborhood, the New York Times reports.
The 73-story building will be built by JDS Development Group and the Chetrit Group, and will feature 500 rental apartments as well as retail space in the adjacent Dime Savings Bank, a registered historic landmark. The project must win the approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“We’re really excited to give Brooklyn a building that isn’t bashful, that isn’t shy,” Michael Stern, the founder and managing partner of JDS, said in a statement. “We want this project to encapsulate everything that is great about Brooklyn’s past and everything that is great about Brooklyn’s future.”

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, a 63-year-old woman in a Fifth Avenue co-op has had the same Maytag washer in her apartment for 20 years with permission and without trouble. Now the co-op board won't approve a replacement unless it's one of three hoity-toity brands. Well, lah-de-dah ... Maytag's not good enough for 'em? Let's go to court! And court may be where Trump Village West board president Igor Oberman might wind up, since a New York City Department of Investigation report accuses him of less-than-ethical things. Plus, Co-op City has an asbestos problem. Or does it?

... a new condo-hotel might go up in Brooklyn Bridge Park. And are you living next to the guy who wrote Ocean's Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum?