City OKs plan to redevelop Brooklyn cultural district

$3M project would provide new landscaping and seating at arts venues

Rendering of Ashland Avenue, and Tucker Reed
Rendering of Ashland Avenue, and Tucker Reed

The city’s Public Design Commission approved a $3 million proposal to redevelop an area on the border of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene into a cultural district.

The project would provide several art venues and theaters such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music with new seating, and new landscaping for the streetscape. Developers of several mixed-use and residential properties headed to the district would foot the bill for much of the cost to rebuild the public spaces on such streets as Lafayette Avenue, Ashland Place and Fulton Street. The city would provide funding over the course of several years, Tucker Reed of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership told Crain’s.

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Since 2004, the city has spent more than $100 million in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District on new facilities, public spaces and affordable housing projects. That includes the new BAM Fisher Building, which opened in 2012, as previously reported. [Crain’s]Mark Maurer