Plans Move Ahead For New Bklyn Hts Library

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Brooklyn Public Library officials yesterday announced the affordable housing sites as part of a swap deal that will see the two-story Brooklyn Heights Library Branch on city-owned property be sold and redeveloped into a high rise luxury housing building with a new library on the ground floors.

The project will replace the aging building at 280 Cadman Plaza West, which requires more than $9 million in repairs, with a brand new facility. The state-of-the-art, 21,500 square foot library – one of the largest in the BPL system – will be developed by the Hudson Companies, Inc. and designed by Marvel Architects.

More than $40 million from the $52 million sale will be invested in neighborhood branches with urgent capital needs, significantly reducing the current $300 million in deferred maintenance across BPL’s 60-branch system.

Also under the deal, the developers are required to provide interim library space during construction of the new library. Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral, 113 Remsen Street has already agreed to provide 8,000 square feet for the interim library. Construction on the site will not begin until the temporary library space is ready.

“Brooklyn Public Library is committed to an open, community-driven design process to decide how this new library can best serve the Brooklyn Heights community for years to come. We are thrilled to partner with the highly respected Brooklyn firm Marvel Architects on this exciting project,” said BPL President and CEO Linda E. Johnson.

The offsite 114 units of affordable housing will be located at  911-917 Atlantic Avenue and 1041-1047 Fulton Street within the Community Board District 2 that will be part of the project. The affordable units will be 100% privately financed and will be built without using City or State capital subsidy, without Federal tax credits and without low-interest subsidy financing.

The Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA), one of the borough’s oldest civic organizations, said they support the plan as long as three conditions are met – all the money from the sale goes back into the library system, an interim library is opened before any construction commences and that the new library be of adequate size.

“It seems they have met or are meeting all of these conditions,” said Alexandra Bowie, BHA Chair of the Library Committee.