It’s not your grandma’s Macy’s.
A luxury skyscraper will rise on the site of the department store’s old graffiti-covered parking garage on Hoyt Street in America’s Downtown, according to the developer that bought the lot along with part of the retailer’s storied Fulton Street building in 2015.
Builder Tishman Speyer is shelling out roughly $690 million to erect the 51-story high-rise at 11 Hoyt St., which will boast 480 for-sale condominiums along with new retail space that will bring even more business to the already bustling commercial district, a company bigwig said.
“11 Hoyt is destined to become Downtown’s most desirable new address,” said Rob Speyer. “The combination of 11 Hoyt’s world-class design, unmatched amenity space, and convenient, highly coveted location make this development truly one-of- a-kind.”
The tower between Fulton and Livingston Streets — the height of which falls within current zoning laws, so only standard city permits are needed to start work — is part of Tishman Speyer’s $270-million redevelopment of the old shopping center, which also includes a major transformation of the two historic buildings that house the store’s floors full of clothing racks.
As part of that project, the builder tore down the four-story 1870s-era cast-iron building on Fulton Street adjoined with the next-door nine-story Art Deco tower built in 1930 that together were the former home of the beloved Abraham and Straus — which occupied the real estate until Macy’s set up shop there in the early ’90s — and is in the process of building a new 14-story tower on the site of the older structure.
The four bottom floors of the high-rise will connect to the four lowest floors of its neighbor, preserving Macy’s retail footprint, according to a rep for the developer, who said workers will reinstall the old 1870 property’s cast-iron facade on the outside of the tower taking its place.
The top ten floors of the new building, dubbed The Wheeler, will contain office space — some of which will connect to the upper floors of its 1930 neighbor — which Tishman Speyer executives hope tenants will start occupying as soon as next year. And roughly $100 million from the builder’s deal with the Macy’s funded in-the-works cosmetic enhancements at the retailer, including a renovated street entrance, refreshed restrooms, and new escalators and elevators. But the developer’s spokesman coudn’t say how the store’s ornate antique elevator doors will be incorporated in the makeover, and a rep for Macy’s did not respond to request for comment.
More amenities inside the condo-filled tower Tishman Speyer is building across the street will be announced soon, according to its rep, but documents filed with the Department of Buildings show plans for a private dining room, children’s area, lounge, game room, pool, and parking.
The builder — the same firm that owns and runs Rockefeller Center on the distant isle of Manhattan — expects to start selling the units inside 11 Hoyt St., which include studios and one-to-four-bedroom apartments, this summer, ahead of the planned 2020 move-in date for its first residents.
And the more than 500-foot building isn’t the tallest tower in the works in the area. Another developer is moving forward with its plan to construct a 73-foot high-rise above the landmarked Dime Savings Bank on nearby Flatbush Avenue Extension, and over in Boerum Hill, a separate builder is now pushing its 80 Flatbush project that includes a 74-story complex through the city’s lengthy rezoning-approval process before it breaks ground.
