Big-box retail, apartments called for in Brooklyn

The city’s master plan for downtown Brooklyn principally calls for commercial development, but now officials are considering a proposal to create new residential and retail space in the city’s third-largest business district. The $500 million plan calls for the razing of the Gallery at Fulton Street — a mall at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Willoughby Street — and the construction of an 800-unit apartment complex featuring a “cavernous retail base” at ground level suitable for a big-box retailer such as a Wal-Mart. more [Sun]