[NYguy]

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categor..._id=5&id=40735

Steel Girders Go Up at City Point Construction Site






by Linda Collins
01-17-2011

Despite the recent snowstorms and freezing temperatures, the steel girders are going up at the City Point construction site in Downtown Brooklyn, and its developers say they are still on target for completion of Phase I in spring 2012.

“The weather hasn’t been real cooperative,” said Tom Montvel Cohen, a spokesperson for the developers.

Montvel-Cohen told the Eagle that the girders were delivered on Friday, Jan. 7, and the huge crane that began to raise them arrived last Wednesday.

As the Eagle reported in October, a new web site (www.citypointbrooklyn.com) was launched which focuses on the retail building in Phase I.

Montvel-Cohen said, “We’re very encouraged by the level of the retailers we’re getting responses from, both local and national.”

The developers are hoping for a mix of both in the four-story, 50,000-square-foot structure, he said, adding that leasing is being handled in-house.

The new web site notes that Phase II will add an additional 500,000 square feet of retail space for a grand total of 550,000 square feet at the project’s completion.

“Planning and design is currently underway for two additional phases that will seamlessly connect to the first retail phase,” the web site states.

The development team is comprised of Acadia Realty Trust and its partners, P/A Associates and Washington Square Partners (collectively known as Acadia-P/A/T). The design is by the architectural firms Cook + Fox and Greenberg Farrow.

The P/A Associates web site notes that City Point will ultimately comprise approximately 1.5 million square feet of new construction, including retail and commercial space and a mixture of affordable and market-rate housing.

Additionally, the Eagle had reported in November that Community Board (CB) 2 gave approval to the creation of an interim Urban Market at the northern end of the construction site.

CB2 approval was required before it could be considered by the city’s Design Commission. a spring opening for the market is anticipated, according to Montvel-Cohen.

The market will be comprised of 40 160-square-foot enclosed units with shopfronts, described as work/sell spaces. They will be set in five rows — “like miniature streets with small stores” — and will include both eateries and boutique shops.

“We and the city didn’t want the site to be empty during the construction, which could take from two to five years,” said Paul Travis of Washington Square Partners, one of the developers, at the CB 2 hearing.

“There’s nothing quite like this in Brooklyn right now,” Travis told board members. “We can learn a lot from this. It will be a test.”