Ever since the Norsemen crossed the Atlantic using the North Star as their compass, Americans have looked for talismans and signposts to keep them going in the right direction. In Brooklyn, the compass has always pointed to the Williamsburg Bank Building.
Whenever a Brooklynite finds himself on unfamiliar streets, a glance at the 512-foot Williamsburg Bank tower provides a rough indication of where they have to go. Since its completion in 1929, Brooklyn s tallest building has always served as a focal point. Located in Fort Greene near Downtown Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Long Island Rail Road Station sit at its feet, with Prospect Park a stone’s throw away and the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges nearby.
But the bank took on a greater significance last summer after the announcement it was being sold for development into luxury condominiums, and now it s pointing to a future for high-end real estate in the area. Developers see it as a project that can turn up the heat on an already simmering market.
“This can have a tremendous impact on the neighborhood as long as it’s done the right way,” said Elan Padeh, CEO and president of the Developers Group, now involved in several projects in Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn. “Right now, Fort Greene is partially a family neighborhood, partially a young people’s neighborhood.”
Now, Padeh speculates, it will probably get a dose of high-end real estate development, Manhattan style. “I think you’re going to get a lot of families — and it will definitely attract a lot of Manhattanites,” said Padeh, a Fort Greene resident himself.
Brokers think some Fort Greene residents will decide to sell their brownstones and opt for condos.
“You can expect [the units to go] in the $700 a foot range,” said Andy Gerringer, managing director of development marketing at Douglas Elliman, who is working on a development called Schaefer Landing on the Williamsburg waterfront, “and it’s hitting $700 per foot.” Gerringer sees no reason why that shouldn’t hold for the area surrounding the bank tower, too.
In the last few years Fort Greene real estate prices have jetted into the stratosphere. “About seven or eight years ago, you could still buy a brownstone for $70,000,” said Padeh. “Now you’re buying brownstones for $1.5 million.”
Plans for a $2.5 billion arena for the NBA’s Nets — and surrounding commercial and residential development — may alter the picture further.
Since the bank tower sale was first reported in the New York Post last November, few details have been forthcoming. The Dermot Co. bought the building, but the deal might still be in contract, said several people familiar with the transaction. No one has yet said how much Dermot Co. has agreed to pay, but it was reported last summer that the 380,000-square-foot property was expected to fetch as much as $95 million, or around $250 per square foot.
Dermot Co. has also been unwilling to offer information on what the planned condos will look like. Gerringer speculates that about 180 units are planned for the 34-story building. “I believe the lower floors will have some commercial,” said Gerringer.
Gerringer says one can also assume that the building will have many of the standard calling cards of a luxury condo building — a health club, parking, perhaps a swimming pool.
There s a lot to work with, Padeh said. “It’s a magnificent building. A lot of it’s vacant, it has a lot of terraces and other features. It’s in very good shape, and if they clean it up they can really bring it back to what it used to be.”
The larger question, of course, is how turning the Williamsburg Bank into condos will affect the surrounding area.
Developments such as Boulevard East, the Toy Factory Lofts and the Court House are all at various stages of completion in Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn, but the Williamsburg Bank Building will likely dwarf each of those projects.
“It’s really going to set the pace for residential development,” said Gerringer. “I mean, you can see the thing from anywhere in Brooklyn — the apartments in there will have clear views. It will be quality residential.”