New 550 Clinton tower rising at northeast corner of Vanderbilt and Atlantic avenues; would be matched by B10 tower (if/when it's built)

It's unmistakable. A tall neighbor to the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park footprint, 550 Clinton Avenue, is more than halfway toward its 29-story height, steadily rising at the northeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue, ultimately stretching east to Clinton Avenue.

Photo Nov. 20, 2020

At the center of my photo at right, taken from Dean Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, the new rental tower is only about 14 stories, dwarfed in perspective by the closer 550 Vanderbilt Avenue condo building.

The new tower will be 312 feet, while 550 Vanderbilt is some 202 feet, but add 40 feet for mechanicals. The tower will have its retail component along Atlantic to Clinton.

Directly catercorner to the new tower is the future B10, at 313 feet, at the northeast corner of the Pacific Park site. But that requires a platform over the second block of the railyard, between Carlton and Vanderbilt, and the platform for the first block, between Sixth and Carlton avenues, hasn't started yet. 

In other words, B10 is likely the last tower to be built, if it's built. The outline was shown, at left, in a 2018 presentation by the developer to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

Steady rise

As Brownstoner posted 11/23/20, A Residential Tower Is Quickly Taking Shape Over Atlantic Avenue in Clinton Hill, the 550 Clinton building already reached 17 stories just a few days later and, looking north from the south side of Vanderbilt Avenue, significant dwarfs its sprawling neighbor, 470 Vanderbilt, a converted tire factory.

Brownstoner noted that "[o]nly about a quarter of the four-story base, which stretches along Atlantic between Clinton and Vanderbilt Avenues, has been constructed."

Brownstoner said that the 264 apartments would include 184 market-rate and 80 affordable units.

Changing context

To build 550 Clinton, developer Hope Street Capital relied on air rights from the historic but weathered Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew on Clinton Avenue north of Atlantic Avenue, which it is helping restore. 

An image from the developer, below, showed it as an extension of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, albeit including the B1 tower rising over the arena, which surely won't be built, and Site 5, officially scheduled for a single, 250-foot tower, but which might expand to a giant, two-tower project if and when the B1 bulk is moved across Flatbush Avenue.

Also, as reported in August 2019, developers have been quietly lobbying on a project for the southeast corner of Atlantic and Vanderbilt, known as 840 Atlantic Avenue, currently home to a McDonald's and parking lot (plus two other lots).

The plan, as described secondhand and not confirmed by the developer, would be for 19 stories and require a rezoning. It would fill in that tempting, mostly empty space at the southeast corner of that intersection. Stay tuned.