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Chelsea Piers Fitness coming to Downtown Brooklyn

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Chelsea Piers Fitness future storefront

We’re getting a fancy gym. Chelsea Piers Fitness is coming to Downtown Brooklyn. The “showroom” is now open for new members. I heard through the rumor mill that “founding member” prices are about $150 per month, and that price will go up once the gym actually opens. That puts this gym in roughly the same category as Crunch, Equinox, or (RIP) David Barton.

The place sounds pretty sweet. Aside from all the regular workout equipment, there’s a A 3-lane, 75-foot pool, two areas for CrossFit-like HIIT training, steam and sauna, and even a “co-working space,” whatever that turns out to be.

From what I hear, the original Chelsea Piers is pretty popular, and this is their first outpost of the brand. If high-end fitness is your thing, it’ll be worth checking out.

If you don’t want to pay that much, there’s always Planet Fitness around the corner.

The new gym is going to be at 265 Schermerhorn Street (between Bond and Nevins), but the “showroom” for interested members is at 442 Atlantic Avenue.

Community Board votes against development of imposing 80 Flatbush tower

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80 Flatbush mockup

Image via 80 Flatbush

The community has spoken. Well, the Brooklyn Community Board 2’s Land-Use Committee has spoken at least. And they’ve voted against the giant construction project at 80 Flatbush Ave at a meeting held Wednesday.

Unlike other, approved development projects in Downtown Brooklyn, the planned tower at 80 Flatbush met a wave of backlash from the community. A group called Block 80 Flatbush Towers formed to fight against the construction project. They’ve been vocal online, as well as covered the neighborhood with their message. With this vote, it appears as if their vote has been heard.

It’s not over yet, however. The next public hearing will be on April 30th, and the full Community Board 2’s vote will be at their next scheduled meeting on May 9th.

Unlike Downtown Brooklyn, which was re-zoned in 2004, the location of 80 Flatbush (between Flatbush Avenue, State Street, 3rd Avenue, and Schermerhorn Street) Beorum Hill, and isn’t zoned for such tall buildings. That means the developer, Alloy Development, needs to have the zoning changed to continue with this planned 986 foot tower.

Community members are having none of it, though. If voting continues this trend, Alloy Development will need to come up with a new plan for the space.

 

Brooklyn Alamo Drafthouse to get fancy new HDR projectors

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Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn

The Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn is one of ten locations of the chain to be getting HDR (high dynamic range) Projectors, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This fancy new projection technology makes for whiter whites and blacker blacks, which I’m sure all the film-o-philes will love. They’re partnering with CinemaNext to get these new projectors in theaters.

The exciting part isn’t necessarily the HDR projection, which isn’t totally new (AMC and Dolby teamed up for Dolby Vision a few years back). The exciting part is HDR projection coming to such a badass theater. I mean, have you been to Alamo Drafthouse yet? I don’t really want to go to other theaters anymore.

Personally, HDR isn’t really that exciting to me. But I don’t really get exciting for IMAX or 3D movies either. I’m sure a lot of people will be thrilled.

No idea when it’s rolling out, but it’s coming. Are you excited?

Passing Moments: Wednesday, April 18th, 2018

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Downtown Brooklyn from Flatbush and Fulton Mall

Wednesday, April 18th, 2018. Downtown Brooklyn from Flatbush and Fulton Mall.

Attempted robbery at Vivi Bubble Tea, armed with a glue gun

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Vivi Bubble TeaImage via Google Maps

After a tip to police, a believed serial robber was arrested in Vivi Bubble Tea at 113 Court St on Monday.

From Pix11:

The employee began to put money in the bag when two officers entered the store and confronted Price, police said.

The officers allegedly spotted a black object in Price’s hand and demanded that he drop it. Police said he did not comply, and fled to the back of the store.

Price was later apprehended without further incident, and a glue gun wrapped in black tape, a black mask and backpack were found in the store’s bathroom, police said.

If you see something, say something.

Construction on 9 Dekalb Ave tower seemingly at a standstill

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9 Dekalb Ave Construction

Construction appears to be at a standstill at 9 Dekalb Ave, the giant skyscraper coming to Downtown Brooklyn that will be twice as tall as any current building in the neighborhood.

The image is an aerial view of the construction site, with the old Dime Savings Bank in the lower right-hand corner of the image. Construction crews were hard at work removing floors of the attached building last summer/fall, but it seems like no progress has been made since then.

I assume the next step will be pile-driving. Which, if my experience living in Carroll Gardens during the early construction of 365 Bond is any indicator, will be neighborhood-shaking.

Does anyone know what’s the hold-up? As much as I dislike the building design, I am excited for more of these giant construction projects to be done.

9 Dekalb Ave mockupImage via CityRealty

Meeting tomorrow to fight against high rise planned at 80 Flatbush

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80 Flatbush MockupImage via 80 Flatbush

Not everyone is happy with all the high rises coming to the neighborhood. Members of our community have banded around stopping the two towers coming to 80 Flatbush Avenue, right across from Atlantic Terminal.

The main argument against this building, as far as I can tell (the official Block 80 Flatbush Towers website is currently down for me, is it working for you?) is that this giant tower will drastically alter several neighborhoods. The tower will be imposing to Boerum Hill, Ft. Greene, Park Slope, Gowanus, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens, all of which consist mostly of brownstone buildings.

This is totally fair. Most of the new Downtown Brooklyn skyscrapers are clustered in the downtown area. Planned buildings like Brooklyn Point, 11 Hoyt, and 9 Dekalb are all in the same general vicinity, none of which looming over other neighborhoods (although 11 Hoyt is pretty close to Boerum Hill).

These new 80 Flatbush towers are creeping farther south, having a much larger impact on people in brownstone Brooklyn.

If you’d like your voice to be heard, you can join the community meeting on Wednesday, April 18th at St. Francis College at 180 Remsen St from 6pm to 9pm.

Brooklyn Neighbors Stop 80 Flatbush Flyer

City Council meeting for Downtown Brooklyn today

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84th precinct brooklyn

Looks like the 84th Precinct (which covers Downtown Brooklyn) is having a city council meeting today at 7pm.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it. Will anyone reading this be there? I’d love to post about it on the website.

I’d love to find someone who regularly goes to community events such as these to share their perspective. I love the type of coverage on the Carroll Garden’s blog Pardon Me for Asking, and would love to have the same type of thing here.

Either way, I’m going to try to make it to the next City Council meeting.

 

A Macy’s Parking Garage No More, Ready for 11 Hoyt

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11 Hoyt Construction Site

It can be hard to see from the street, but Macy’s old parking garage is no longer a parking garage. The first step in constructing the next skyscraper being added to Downtown Brooklyn’s skyline, at 11 Hoyt. I shot this photo from our roof on April 14th, 2018, so everyone could get a look at the current progress.

You can click through to the 11 Hoyt website, to see renderings of the new building. New York Yimby has even more. Not too bad, IMO. Definitely not as utterly terrifying as the monstrosity coming to 9 Dekalb Ave.

I don’t think the 11 Hoyt website has been updated in a while, because it still says “anticipated launch summer 2018.” Although, who knows what “launch” refers to. Maybe that’s when they’ll start selling units? Apartments at Brooklyn Point, the third City Point tower that’s currently under construction, went on sale a few weeks ago.

Units in 11 Hoyt will apparently start at $600k and go up to $4M, competing directly with Brooklyn Point. But have you seen the renderings of Brooklyn Point’s amenities? That rooftop pool…rock climbing wall…children’s playroom…those are going to be hard to beat. Yimby says that 11 Hoyt will also “include a pool, squash court, game room, children’s area, and an exercise room.” We’ll have to wait and see how the renderings stack up.

What do you think of these two upcoming additions to the Downtown Brooklyn skyline?

Scaffolding on Starbucks collapses, injuring three

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Police Tape CautionPhoto by Eugene Zemlyanskiy

Scaffolding at a Starbucks on Court Street and Joralemon collapsed on Saturday, April 14th. Three people were sent to the hospital with minor injuries — fortunately nothing more. The NY Post has the full story.

I recently downloaded the Citizen mobile app, which sent me an alert shortly after it happened. A user had submitted a picture of the scene, but unfortunately I didn’t have the foresight to capture it for this website. I’m finding Citizen pretty useful though. It reminds me of Gothamist’s (now-defunct) Maps, but with much better UI.

Were you nearby the incident? What was your experience?