| NY Construction |
| Article Title: |
Brooklyn Mid-Rises |
| Date Published: |
4/1/2006 |
| Author: |
Tom Nicholson |
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Feature Story - April 2006
Brooklyn Mid-Rises
Developer Gets a Head Start near Area Set for Redevelopment
by Tom Nicholson
Three new buildings now under construction are the first in a line of new residential projects expected to start in Brooklyn's Williamsburg district.
Three new condominium buildings will open later this year in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, an area expected to attract a spurt of development in the wake of a controversial rezoning that went into effect last year.
But the three buildings, which are in various states of completion, are going up under the previous zoning rules because they managed to break ground prior to the city's adoption of the rezoning.
The buildings sit side by side on Bayard Street overlooking the southern edge of McCarren Park, which is also bordered by N. 12th and Leonard streets and by Nassau Avenue, about three blocks from the East River.
"The buildings are facing the park and have unlimited and unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline," said Karl Fischer, principal of Karl Fischer Architects, a New York-based firm that designed the structures. "We used as much glass as possible. It's a modern design, and although the interiors are minimalist, it is designed to cater to young professionals."
The 12-story, 51-unit, $16 million Aurora at 30 Bayard St. is nearly complete and on track to open this spring. The eight-story, 58-unit, $17 million Ikon located at 50 Bayard St. is a converted warehouse that will be complete by late fall. The third is the as-yet-unnamed, 16-story, 64-unit, $20 million tower at 20 Bayard St. that is scheduled to be complete by the end of summer.
The developer, Issac Hager of Brooklyn, is using his own construction management arm as well as an outside general contractor on the jobs.
According to the Developers Group, a marketing firm working for Hager, units in the Aurora will range in price from $550,000 to $2.1 million. Prices for units in the other buildings were not yet established as of mid-winter, and the firm declined to provide data on any presales.
The glass-clad exteriors make the condominiums stand out sharply in the quiet, residential neighborhood of two- and three-story rowhouses. The buildings may well stand out for a long time because such tall structures are not allowed under the rezoning adopted last year.
Getting a Jump on the New Rezoning
Historically an enclave of Eastern European immigrants, where much storefront signage is still in Polish, in the past two decades the low-rent neighborhoods along the waterfront became a flourishing haven for artists, students, and bohemian culture. The Williamsburg-Greenpoint rezoning plan enacted by the city last May - after a contentious debate over its details at the community and City Council level - could change all of that.
The plan opens up 350 acres of East River waterfront to development that will include high-rise condominiums with about 10,000 new apartments, a riverside esplanade, and a park.
Proponents of the plan said that long-overdue redevelopment of largely vacant industrial areas near the waterfront will revitalize Williamsburg and Greenpoint, a neighborhood to the north that is also on the river, while also encouraging the development of affordable housing under the new rules. Evan Theis, a spokesman for Council Member David Yassky, who represents the area on the City Council, said the new housing is critical.
"The waterfront is underdeveloped - there are dilapidated buildings and rusting structures all along there," he said. "Developing it will mean more schools, more investment in the community, and will make the area safer."
But critics argued that "gentrification" threatened to erase the neighborhood's close-knit community and make housing too expensive for those who have stayed for decades after the industrial base left. Among the strongest opponents are local civic and political groups, such as the North Brooklyn Alliance and the North Brooklyn Greens, whose Web site includes a statement that the rezoning "will destroy the neighborhood as we know it."
In part to counter such criticism and preserve neighborhood character, the rezoning includes a building-height restriction of 50 ft. except for blocks along the immediate riverfront, which will keep high-rise development focused at the river, Theis said. "It will preserve the upland neighborhood," he added.
The condominium projects under way on Bayard Street are located within that height-restriction zone, but the developers broke ground in February 2005 and had foundations poured at the site while prior zoning rules, which allowed taller buildings, were still in effect. Theis said that by racing to get foundations laid before the rezoning took effect last May, the developer managed to sidestep the height restriction.
"It's unfortunate, but there is nothing that can be done about that now," he added.
But Highlyann Krasnow, executive vice president for the Developers Group, said the new towers are a net plus for the area.
"They will transform Bayard from a dilapidated street into an exclusive residential block," she added.
Construction Nearing the Finish Line
The Aurora topped out last winter and final structural work is under way in preparation for the interior fit-out scheduled to start in early spring, said Eugene Aydin, vice president of Queens-based KiSKA USA, the U.S. unit of a Turkey-based general contractor that is building both the Aurora and Ikon. Built on a pile and cap foundation, the steel-frame structure for the Aurora has reinforced concrete floors.
"It is on more than 100 piles," Aydin said. "The whole area is an old riverbed and there is a high water table there."
The Aurora, which is located in the middle of the three abutting structures and is the second tallest of the buildings, has a glass, metal, and brick exterior.
The Ikon building involves a different approach than the other two, Aydin said. It entails building a four-story glass upper structure atop an existing four-story base.
"It is an old warehouse building that we are gutting, renovating, and putting an additional structure on top of," he added. "In order to do that we had to reinforce the timber columns on the existing structure. We covered the timber columns with steel jackets."
Driving new piles for the Ikon required creative planning because the layout of the existing structure prevented the team from putting a drill rig in the basement, he said.
"The building sits on about 40 new piles and we had to drill them working from inside the building," Aydin added. "We had to get a pile-driving rig into the first floor of the building."
Aydin said the decision to convert the warehouse stemmed primarily from cost considerations.
"To build onto the existing structure was less expensive than razing the old warehouse and starting from scratch," he added. "Plus, local zoning regulations allowed more square footage to be built when added to the existing structure rather than as a new building."
Over the winter, the project team completed the superstructure work for the Ikon and had progressed about halfway on installing the exterior masonry and windows.
The third building at 20 Bayard St. is using a different contractor, North Through Construction of Brooklyn, which is an affiliate of Hager's development firm. Built on a mat foundation, the poured-and-plank concrete tower required drilling of more than 100 piles because of the soft ground beneath it, according to a North Through spokesman. The project team topped out in late January, and is expected to complete the building by August.
All three buildings have one-, two- and three-bedroom layouts. The tallest building at 20 Bayard has about 85,000 sq. ft. overall, with units ranging from 700 sq. ft. to 1,400 sq. ft.
The Aurora has about 58,000 sq. ft. with units ranging from 700 sq. ft. to 1,400 sq. ft. The converted warehouse in the Ikon will result eventually in about 55,000 sq. ft. with units ranging from 600 sq. ft. to 900 sq. ft.
Amenities included in the design are a rooftop gym at the Aurora, a large common recreation room at the Ikon, and a library room in the third building that will overlook a green space.
The 36-acre McCarren Park, named for a 19th Century state senator, has ballfields, tennis and basketball courts, a running track, and other recreational and park facilities. It had one of the city's largest pools, but that facility has been closed since 1984. <<
Key Players
Owner: Issac Hager, Brooklyn
Architect: Karl Fischer Architects, New York
Structural Engineer: Severud Associates, New York
Contractors: Kiska USA, Long Island City, N.Y.; North Through Construction, Brooklyn
Concrete Contractor: IBK Construction, New York
Steel Contractor: Baron Steel Construction, New York
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