Timing update: crane for B4 tower should depart by March; excavation for B12/B13 should be complete by early spring (but no answers on major questions)

This is the second of a few posts on the 1/26/21 Quality of Life meeting, sponsored by Empire State Development and held virtually. The first concerned postponed weekend railyard work.

There was no update on some of the major questions regarding the project: plans to start the first of two platform phases over the Long Island Rail Road's Vanderbilt Yard; plans to build three towers over that first platform; plans to meet the project's requirement of 2,250 affordable units by building about 877 more by May 2025; plans to shift the bulk of the unbuilt "Miss Brooklyn" tower

Scott Solish of Greenland USA, the project's master developer (as nearly full owner of Greenland Forest City Partners) said that the the curtain wall of B4 tower, 18 Sixth Ave., is now above the 38th floor (of 51 stories) and interior fitout work continues.

From presentation; note that B4 is a 
joint project of Greenland Forest City
Partners & The Brodsky Organization

He said the crane for the building should come down at the end of February or beginning of March, on a weekend. 

"We're still hopeful people will be living by end of year, and completion sometime in the Spring 2022," he said. The building should have 860 units, so presumably it will take more than a few months to fill up.

The 28-story B15 tower, 662 Pacific Street, has topped out, Solish said, and "it is expected that people will move in hopefully by the summer or fall and complete, hopefully, by the end of year." The building should have 312 apartments.

Both buildings will have 30% affordable units, under the Affordable NY tax break program, but officials again declined to disclose whether all the apartments would be middle-income, or whether some low-income units would be included.

Timing for the school

A middle-school, now due to open in September 2024, is being built in the lower floors of B15. The School Construction Authority (SCA) recently said that the timing was delayed by the pandemic.

"Once the apartments are complete, the SCA will move in, and start working on the fitout of the school," Solish said. (It's unclear whether the SCA in other instances works on the school fitout while the rest of a building is under construction, so that's a question for the SCA, which should send a rep to a future meeting.)

On the southeast block

From presentation

As to the B12/B13 towers (615 Dean St. and 595 Dean St.), Amir Stein of developer TF Cornerstone said that the support of excavation work was "approximately 70% complete" and excavation should be complete at the end of the winter or early spring.

Such digging has been particularly disruptive to neighbors stuck at home during the pandemic.

With the superstructure phase by early spring, "you'll start to see concrete trucks, entering and exiting the site, as opposed to the trucks removing soil today," Stein said. 

"And we'll aim to be kind of level with the streets in time this summer, and generally we are on track for completion of the buildings in spring of 2023," he said. An significant amount of below-grade space will be used for a Chelsea Piers fitness center and fieldhouse.

Those towers will have 798 apartments with 30% of them affordable--again, without details on the level of affordability.