NEW YORK, NY – Jonathan Rose Companies announced it has begun construction of BCD:A (Brooklyn Cultural District Apartments), a 121,551-sq.ft. mixed-use, mixed-income property located at the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Ashland Place in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District.
The development team for BCD:A includes Dattner Architects, Bernheimer Architecture, and SCAPE Landscape Architects. Cultural partners for the project include The Center for Fiction and the Mark Morris Dance Group.
The $51.1 million, 11-story development includes 123 apartments of which 40% will be affordable to families earning between 80% and 130% of Area Median Income, 2,800 square feet of retail space for a flagship 'wichcraft restaurant and 21,400 sq.ft. for cultural use. The Center for Fiction will occupy 17,696 sq. ft. and the Mark Morris Dance Group to occupy 3,757 sq. ft. Construction financing for the project has been provided by a $28 million construction loan from Citizens Bank.
The Center for Fiction, currently headquartered in Manhattan, is the only literary center in the country solely devoted to the creation and celebration of the art of fiction in all its forms. In relocating to Brooklyn's BCD:A, The Center for Fiction will create an innovative and welcoming space where readers and writers can connect, where writers can hone their craft and receive early-career support and services, where readers can find and share fiction from around the country and around the world, where children can explore the pleasures of reading and writing, and where the organization itself can be part of a thriving literary community.
The Mark Morris Dance Center opened in 2001 to serve not only as a home for the Mark Morris Dance Group, but to provide rehearsal space for the dance community, programs for local children and seniors, and dance classes for students of all ages and abilities, with free offerings for families and people with Parkinson's disease. The Dance Center's seven studios, including the 150-seat James and Martha Duffy Performance Space, terraces, and meeting rooms are used by over two thousand people each week. The expansion with BCD:A will create two additional studios allowing the Dance Group to better serve the growing community.
The development will also house Brooklyn's first 'wichcraft restaurant, the Chef Tom Colicchio-owned chain, recognized for serving high-quality ingredients, prepared with care, in a fast casual environment. This location of 'wichcraft will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and will incorporate new offerings to appeal to the large number of residents in the neighborhood, as well as the crowds attending performances at BAM and other cultural institutions.
In addition to the restaurant and cultural uses, BCD:A will also feature an environmentally responsible design to promote healthy living, resource conservation and energy efficiency, to meet or exceed LEED Silver standard. The design calls for a high performance insulated façade system with low-e double-glazed windows, and state of the art VRF HVAC systems, which provide residents with quiet, efficient heating and cooling.
The apartments include a beautiful landscaped roof-top with communal tables for dining and co-working, as well as an outdoor kitchen and sun deck. The landscaping and planting by SCAPE landscape architects was designed to celebrate the native communities of plants that are part of New York's ecological heritage.
Other residential building amenities include a resident lounge, and a top-floor fitness center and double-height conservatory. The property will also include a "Product Lending Library" (or "virtual closet") which will include a collection of thoughtfully selected items that residents may need once in a while, but not every day. Examples of such items include a video projector, large stock pot, pasta maker and bocce set. These will be rented to residents for a modest fee, with the goal of creating a new model of collaborative consumption.