Greenland Forest City mulls building BK’s biggest office tower

Developer may seek rights transfer allowing for 1.5M sf property at Pacific Park

590 Atlantic Avenue
590 Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn (inset: MaryAnne Gilmartin)

Greenland Forest City is exploring the possibility of constructing Brooklyn’s largest office tower at its Pacific Park development near the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn.

The developer, a partnership between Forest City Ratner Companies [TRData] and Chinese real estate investment firm Greenland USA [TRData], is looking into securing the approvals needed to transfer up to 1.1 million square feet of development rights to 590 Atlantic Avenue, according to Crain’s.

That would enable a roughly 1.5 million-square-foot office tower to rise at the site, located close to Brooklyn’s largest transit hub at Atlantic Avenue.

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“Pacific Park was always meant to include modern office space,” a Greenland Forest City spokesperson told Crain’s in a statement, adding that the company believes “the time is right for the borough to have an iconic office building for the new Brooklyn economy.”

But the plan would need state approval for the transfer of development rights from a nearby plaza to 590 Atlantic Avenue, where Greenland Forest City presently has rights to build a 440,000-square-foot office property.

The site is currently occupied by a Modell’s Sporting Goods store and a P.C. Richard & Sons electronics and appliances store. P.C. Richard recently filed a lawsuit against Forest City Ratner over the eminent domain condemnation of its location, as The Real Deal reported last month. [Crain’s]Rey Mashayekhi