Does Anyone Want to Buy a Huge L-shaped Lot?

Brownstoner  The Brooklyn Eagle was the first with the word that the site of the proposed Lincoln Road tower is now up for sale. The project broker, TerraCRG, is quoted saying "We completely acknowledge that the award winning plans are ambitious for today’s market conditions and may have to be amended to accommodate a more modest rental project." They have no asking price listed.

I have no idea what the future holds for the site but we stand by our previous feeling that the location is, as these things go, as good a location for a high-rise in PLG as you are likely to find. Near both bus and subway, on a significant-commercial block with minimal architectural significance and mere blocks from the massive Patio Gardens development. We know that many of you disagreed with us about this. Go ahead and dance on the grave in the comments.

Via The Real Deal

Comments

[Tim]

Sorry Charles. No disagreement here. A high(er) rise makes sense. There's no reason to hog the park all to ourselves. It's just the developers themselves that creep me out. No one seems to want to build nice, tasteful affordable middle class housing anymore. The irony is that our whole neighborhood, from the Manor to the big apt buildings, was build as nice, tasteful affordable middle class housing. I guess it's just not sexy to be utilitarian.

[Seth]

Hopefully the site will remain in limbo or alternatively we will see a new development proposed that is architecturally in context with the surrounding blocks.

Previously the price being sought for the land was considered quite outlandish. I don't know what they are hoping for now, but in my experience major property owners are not exactly the most introspective folk. In other words, I imagine they are seeking something equally unrealistic.

[Midwoody]

It is currently listed @ $6,990,000...
It is a lot of money... but, it seems like a pretty incredible opportunity in the long term, right? That much space doesn't come up that often in such a special location.

[babs]

That is a very lot of money. Check out the three contiguous lots currently for sale on Clarkson (which right now hold three detached frame houses that are not long for this world) that BHS is selling. Wonder how the new buyers of the two houses on the other side of Clarkson will feel about living diagonally across the street from a construction site/yet another big apartment building.

[Jeanne]

"In context" is a concern when the surrounding buildings are actually worth copying. Nothing around this lot is especially unique. They look the same as every prewar apt building in Brooklyn. "In context" with regard to materials means brick and stucco. I don't know about you but I find most all new construction of brick buildings absolutely ghastly. That gives me visions of a massive nasty Fedders-special rising above the subway & park's gateway to our neighborhood. High quality modern architecture would look far better.

[plgrez]

most attempts to build "in context" end up looking terrible, like knockoffs of the original. better to aim for well executed architectural contrast in my opinion. stark and modern look great next to old and ornate - just look at the skyline of any modern city for examples.

[babs]

I could certainly go for a well-designed architecturally attractive building no higher than 12 stories. This is entirely feasible (see the new building on Hawthorne St - it's not too hideous). I honestly do not believe that the sort of "developer" putting up the nasty Fedders crap seen in other parts of the neighborhood could afford to build here. Those types usually take advantage of long-term owners in financial difficulty and unable to care for their (usually) frame houses, which are then demolished.

[Jeanne]

Actually 17 stories would still be fully "in context" with the immediate surroundings because Patio Gardens, the two side-by-side large apt buildings built in the 1960s a mere one block from this site, are 17 floors high. Patio Gardens was not built to look exactly like the nearby 1920s buildings. The scale, architecture and interior details and layout are indicative of their period. It is a nicely maintained, well run rental property and a great asset to the neighborhood. I have a film producer friend who has rented there many years and there was a great Patio Gardens apt on the house tour year before last, residence of a young interior designer.

[babs]

Patio Gardens itself is out of context, but if building a few out of context structures creates a new context, then say what you like. And if broken-down elevators, negelctful maintenance, and capricious rental requirements translate to a well-run rental property and an asset to the neighborhood, right on there, too. I can't tell you how many times, when visitng friends there, we've had to walk up to the 9th floor because both elevators were out.

I remember a gorgeously-done apartment of a designer on the house tour a few years ago, but that was at 99 Ocean, I believe.

[Bob Marvin]

The Patio Gardens apartment was on tour the year after the one on Ocean.