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Raymond Chan plans massive Sunset Park development
Complex would include a mall, office tower, hotel and two residential towers
Architect Raymond Chan and a group of developers are planning a massive mixed-use development on Eighth Avenue between 61st and 64th streets in Sunset Park.
If approved, the project, dubbed the Eighth Avenue Center, would be anchored by a three-story mall with small retailers in the style of Chelsea Market, the Brooklyn Paper reported. The complex would also include a 10-story hotel with 150 rooms, two 15-story residential towers with a total of 350 apartments and a 17-story office tower, the newspaper reported.
Chan and his co-developers purchased the site at 6200 Eighth Avenue from Andrew Kohen in May for $51.5 million, a price that makes it one of the largest investment sales in Brooklyn this year. Kohen had planned to build a residential tower with a retail building occupied by Home Depot, but shelved the plans after the housing crisis set in.
The developers will have to renew the zoning variance obtained by Kohen in order to move forward, the Brooklyn Paper reported. Kohen’s project faced stiff opposition from Community Board 10, but he won approval after agreeing to price one-fifth of the units below market.
The Chinese-language World Journal first reported on the development in June. The newspaper noted that the development would be financed primarily through investors, bank mortgages and capital raised through an immigrant investor program better known as EB-5. [Brooklyn Paper] and [World Journal] – Tom DiChristopher