Last month the city cut a whopping $11 million in funding from Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP), our borough’s High Line, making a plan many had hoped to avoid—to build condos and hotels within the park to help cover its $16 million annual maintenance costs—appear all but certain. And now it is completely certain, as the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation prepares to release a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the first pair of buildings in the park later this month or in early August.
The details of the forthcoming RFP give a sense of the scope of the project. The Brooklyn Eagle reports that the two buildings for which the Park Corporation is soliciting proposals will rise from the empty lot between the bike and pedestrian path and Furman Street facing Pier 1. On the north side of the lot—closer to Old Fulton Street—the taller “Building A” will rise to 100 feet and include hotel rooms, a restaurant, apartments and parking spaces, while the smaller “Building B” will rise to 55 feet on the southern portion of the lot and include apartments and parking.
So, how much housing and parking can you fit into a total of 155 feet of buildings? The RFP will call for “170 to 225 hotel rooms, 150 to 180 housing units and 300 parking spaces.” While previously alluded-to options for avoiding the condo-hotel scheme were mentioned at the Monday meeting where the Park Corporation revealed the details of the upcoming RFP, their inadequacy for raising the substantial funds needed to operate the park was reiterated. And of course, no starting (or ending) date for construction on these two buildings.
We wonder which national hotel chain will move in and buy up park naming rights as part of a sweet combo deal—DoubleTree Bridge Park has a nice ring to it, right?