After Eight Decades, Brooklyn To Finally Get Taller

A venture of Acadia Realty Trust, MacFarlane Partners, Rose Associates, P/A Associates and Washington Square Partners seems to be moving forward with the redevelopment of Albee Square into the City Point development, with plans to build a 65-story, Greenberg Farrow-designed mixed-use tower in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle writes today.

As this tower suggest, it seems the move by developer Forest City Ratner in 2006 to keep the tallest tower in its Atlantic Yards project below the 512-foot height of Brooklyn’s tallest One Hanson Place (the former Williamsburg Bank Tower, built in 1929) was not symptomatic of a Brooklyn-wide height cap. (A condo-converted One Hanson had its first move-ins today.)

Indeed, Forest City apparently has plans for a really really tall Renzo Piano-designed tower in Downtown Brooklyn as part of a CUNY deal (the company has said the height is significantly lower than the 1,000-foot height suggested in media reports). But as the Brooklyn Paper reported last month, the amount Forest City is billing the state has swelled from $86 million in 2004 to $307 million for the project, which includes an 11- to 14-story lab/classroom building.