Thanks to a YIMBY reader, we have a first look at schematics for 85 Jay Street, in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The site comprises a massive 21-story mixed-used project being developed by Kushner Companies, LIVWRK, and CIM Group. The elevation reveals a full-block development with a central courtyard and two towers rising from the southwest and northeast corners.
Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood has been mostly built out for several years now, but within the dense blocks to the west of the Manhattan Bridge overpass, there are still several remaining opportunities. New building applications have now been filed for the vacant lot at 85 Jay Street, which will have a total construction area of 875,505 square feet. Within that, there will be a 1,154 square-foot community facility, 60,017 square feet of commercial space, and 812,978 square feet of residential space, to be divided amongst 737 units. That would normally indicate apartments, but at an average size of over 1,100 square feet, condominiums would also seem possible. Morris Adjmi will be designing the 21-story and 250-foot-tall project, and Kushner Companies will be developing, having acquired the site alongside the Jehovah’s Witness Headquarters at 25-30 Columbia Street for $700 million last year.
Kushner Companies, LIVWRK, and the CIM Group have closed on the purchase, for $345 million, of the 135,000-square-foot development site at 85 Jay Street, in DUMBO. The full-block property, currently vacant, could accommodate up to 1.1-million square feet of mixed-use development, the New York Post reported. The new owners plan to develop the site within current zoning laws. A project “with mixed uses” is planned, although plans are very preliminary. It was reported earlier that the site could host as many as 1,000 residential units. The team is in the process of hiring architects and consultants.
Over the spring, a team of developers entered into contract to acquire, from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the 11-story, 739,000-square-foot commercial complex known as the Watchtower, at 25-30 Columbia Heights, in Brooklyn Heights. The team – now a joint venture between the Kushner Companies, CIM Group, and LIVWRK – have closed on the purchase for roughly $340 million, Commercial Observer reported. The new owners plan to convert the complex into creative office space, likely similar to how some of the same developers transformed the five-building complex now dubbed DUMBO Heights. The redevelopment is expected to begin within a year. In addition to the acquisition of 25-30 Columbia Heights, the same partnership is remains in contract to buy the vacant, block-encompassing development site at 85 Jay Street, in DUMBO.
RFR Holding, LIVWRK, and Kushner Companies are preparing to enter into contract to purchase the 11-story, 733,000-square-foot office complex at 25-30 Columbia Heights, in Brooklyn Heights, in addition to the vacant full-block, 135,000-square-foot development site at 85 Jay Street, in DUMBO, from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The team of developers are paying $700 million for the properties, according to the New York Post. 25-30 Columbia Heights, which is commonly called the “Watchtower,” is the organization’s current headquarters. It could possibly be turned into a commercial hub, similar to how the same developers converted the former Jehovah’s Witnesses properties at 81 Prospect Street into offices back in 2014. As for 85 Jay Street, the site has been long approved for roughly 1.1 million square feet of development. That’s as many as 700 to 1,000 residential units, which could boost the neighborhood’s population by a third, Brownstoner reported a few months ago.