The Brooklyn Public Library’s major development and housing site downtown Brooklyn started in 2016 with the sale of Cadman Plaza Library for $52 million, and is now well on the way to completion, said city and library officials.
City Councilmember Stephen Levin (D-Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, Greenpoint, Williamsburg), who has always backed the library deal, said he is “excited” the construction at 1 Clinton Street (280 Cadman Plaza West) is nearing completion and the building will be coming online soon.
“This project was a significant investment in our library system, but also brought 114 units of permanent affordable housing, a new [Department of Education Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] DOE STEM space for students, and the first new [Brooklyn Library] branch built since 1983 serving DUMBO and Vinegar Hill. Hudson [the developer] has also been a communicative partner with our office and the surrounding community through the duration of this massive project,” said Levin.
Developer David Kramer and his Hudson Companies were poised to turn the Cadman Plaza library into a community juggernaut with a 36-story condominium residential high rise and a new 26,260-square-foot library on the bottom floors.
The affordable housing side of the project, located at 909 Atlantic Avenue and 1043 Fulton Street has been constructed, with the “C of O” or certificate of occupancy for the 114 units of permanently affordable housing issued at the start of this year, said Levin’s office.
The BPL Dumbo-Vinegar Hill branch, located at 135 Adams Street, is also getting a new library branch and “a STEM space” on site, said Levin’s office.
The interior of the building should be complete by the end of the year, said Levin’s office, and the exterior by the same time or in the first weeks of 2021 even with the COVID-19 crisis.
Construction was paused at the start of the lockdown in the city but was “granted approvals with the necessary safeguards in place and routine inspections by [Department of Buildings] DOB” so that they could stay on schedule, said Levin’s office.
That BPL branch was temporarily re-located to 109 Remsen Street, and is supposed to return to its new space at the site by March 2021.
“Hudson Companies turned over the core and shell to us last winter. We began the fit-out of the library in the spring and we expect to complete the project in the spring of 2021–with an expected opening this summer,” said Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) Press Officer Fritzi Bodenheimer.
