The developer behind some of Brooklyn’s most expensive condo buildings is moving into Boerum Hill.
Alloy Development is buying up properties on the triangular block bounded by Flatbush and Third avenues and Schermerhorn and State streets where it plans to erect a new high-rise, according to several community leaders who have spoken with the company about its tentative plans for the site.
“There are a couple of moving parts so the only thing that can be said with certainty is that Alloy has assembled most of the block as a development site and plans to construct a new building there,” said Rob Perris, who is the district manager of Community Board 2, which encompasses Boerum Hill.
The company declined to comment on its plans, but Perris, Councilman Steve Levin (D–Boerum Hill), and Boerum Hill Association civic group president Howard Kolins each met separately with the developer — best known for erecting multimillion-dollar condos in Dumbo — in August, each confirmed.
Its reps were tight-lipped on their exact intentions, Kolins said, but told him the structure will likely include ground-floor retail.
Under the block’s current zoning, they could build offices, stores, or housing there, though Alloy seems to deal mostly in residential properties.
There is no hard height cap — the site is part of Downtown’s special development district — but altitude would be limited by the amount of floor area the company owns, and Alloy’s people said they’re considering applying to rezone the land so they can go way higher, according to Perris.
The city’s online property database — which isn’t always up to date — doesn’t show any deeds changing hands on the block recently, but the developer’s reps told the district manager they’d purchased all the buildings on the block except the Department of Education properties along Third Avenue, which includes the Khalil Gibran International Academy.
Long Island real-estate group Kimaqu Corporation owns most of the other buildings, but claimed it isn’t selling any of them. However an employee from Gem Pawnbrokers — which owns a large storefront on the Schermerhorn side of the block, according to city records — said he is sure that property had been sold, although he didn’t know the specifics of the transaction.
And an education department spokeswoman says it put a call out to find firms interested in redeveloping the Khalil Gibran building in July, though it hasn’t made any decisions yet, but refused to say whether it was a response to Alloy shopping around.
The Department of Transportation is toying with the idea of closing the tiny stretch Schermerhorn Street there and turning it into a pedestrian plaza, according to Perris and Kolins — though an agency spokeswoman said she wasn’t aware of any plans — and Kolins says Alloy’s people expressed interest in helping spiff-up the streetscape if that goes ahead.
Kolins says he invited Alloy to present more detailed plans to the Boerum Hill Association at its September meeting, and the developer told him “maybe.”
A high-rise on the site would likely tower over the nearby brownstones in historic Boerum Hill, although it will fit right in with other new developments along Flatbush Avenue — Two Trees Management’s 32-story BAM South building across the street is nearly complete, Jonathan Rose Companies is currently erecting a 12-story property at Ashland Place and Lafayette Avenue, and the Gotham Organization’s 53-story apartment building and food hall the Ashland at Fulton Street and Ashland Place is about to open.
Alloy declined to comment.
