Changing skyline around Atlantic Terminal, as 100 Flatbush (part of 80 Flatbush) rises; a nudge for/warning against Site 5 ambitions

The context around Downtown Brooklyn/Atlantic Terminal keeps changing--and that's both a nudge for development at Site 5 of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park and a warning against the ambitions previously expressed, as explained below.

As shown in the photos below, the first of two towers in the project originally called 80 Flatbush and now called The Alloy Block, is rising at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and State Street, with the northern boundary of the overall parcel Schermerhorn Street and the western boundary Third Avenue.

As noted by NY YIMBY, the building currently under construction is 44-story, 482-foot-tall 100 Flatbush Avenue. 

It will have 441 apartments, with 45 affordable housing--10% of the total, or 25% of the 184 apartments that were added as a substitute for the 100,000 square feet of office space originally planned. I reported on the swap for Bklyner in May 2021.

Note: you can't fit 184 apartments into 100,000 square feet unless they're small, given that the average would be 543 square feet.

Photos Aug. 5, 2022

Relationship to Site 5

Little more than a block away at Site 5, bounded by Atlantic, Flatbush, and Fourth avenues, and Pacific Street, the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer has floated ambitious plans.

Developer Greenland Forest City Partners wants to move most of the unbuilt square footage of the "Miss Brooklyn" tower, once slated to loom over the arena at Atlantic and Flatbush, across the street, inflating a building approved at 250 feet tall and 439,050 square feet to a two-tower project nearly 800 feet and 1.1 million square feet.

That requires a new public process, including public hearings, and approval by Empire State Development, the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. 

As I wrote in January, a common way to assess density is Floor Area Ratio, or FAR, the multiple of bulk to the underlying lot. Downtown Brooklyn in 2004 was rezoned to an FAR of 10, with an opportunity for bonuses to reach an FAR of 12.

The lot at Site 5, based on my analysis of presentation would have an FAR of 23.5. The 80 Flatbush project gained an FAR of 15.75, after requesting an FAR of 18, which the Municipal Art Society called unprecedented.

So how could they justify an FAR at Site 5 nearly 50% more than that for 80 Flatbush? Stay tuned.