BOYS HIGH TO MEET WRECKING BALL
Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Boys High School, the oldest public high school in Brooklyn, is slated for demolition later this year. The structure, located at 832 Marcy Avenue, will be replaced with a 300-unit glass and steel affordable and market-rate apartment building.
Formerly regarded as an “historic and architecturally notable public school,” the building recently suffered minor structural problems and was regarded by the Department of Buildings as “too-outmoded for any corrections to be made.”
A developer has moved in quietly to purchase the building for $33.9 million – a new record for this section of Brooklyn – and will begin the tear-down process, likely in September. The company, Brooklandia Investments, is an investment firm with headquarters in New Zealand which prides itself on its speed of construction.
“This,” Oakenshield stated, “we are prepared to deliver on.”
The speed with which this deal occurred and the cloak of secrecy under which the Department of Buildings declared the 125-year-old structure unstable has amazed some local residents who felt that they were not informed of the future for the building.
“It’s been here since I was a kid. I used to go to that school,” said one resident, who wished to remain anonymous, “but it looks like they’re gonna build something nice to replace it.”
Brooklandia, in a deal with the de Blasio administration, has revealed that most of its construction costs will be incurred by the City through several tax and financing incentive programs which will allow the building, according to Oakenshield, to be constructed at “half what it would have cost in any other city.”
In exchange for the millions of dollars in incentives the company is receiving from tax-payer funding from the City, Brooklandia is required, in the deal, to provide 3% of the 300 apartments (9 total) as affordable apartments for at least five years before they can revert to market rate. Oakenshield expects their market-rate studio apartments to start at $3,300, with 3-bedrooms going for $5,500.
In explaining the contrast of their “modern eklektique” building type in a neighborhood that goes back more than 150 years, Oakenshield waxed historic:
“So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.”
The de Blasio administration has not returned calls for comments.
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