- Mixed-use development near Brooklyn Navy Yard. Image: Courtesy FXFOWLE Architects.
- Proposed Navy Green development along Vanderbilt Avenue between Flushing and Park Avenues. Image: Courtesy FXFOWLE Architects.
Located on former prison site, the complex will provide affordable and special needs housing. On September 30, 2009, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to facilitate the construction of a 455- unit complex, known as Navy Green, in Brooklyn’s Wallabout neighborhood. The 461,449 sq.ft. mixed-use development will be located on most of the block bounded by Flushing Avenue to the north, the Brooklyn- Queens Expressway to the south, Vanderbilt Avenue to the east, and Clermont Avenue to the west. During World War II, the Navy operated a prison on the site and the City’s Department of Correction used the structure before its 2005 demolition.
Dunn Development and L&M Development Partners’ proposal for the site includes four multi-family buildings and 23 four-story townhouses. The developers will build two 12-story structures on Flushing Avenue that will step down to eight-stories as they wrap around the corners of Clermont and Vanderbilt Avenues, respectively. The plan calls for constructing 10 four-story townhouses along Clermont Avenue, and 13 townhouses on Vanderbilt Avenue. An eight-story structure will be built on the southern portion of Clermont Avenue, and another eight-story building will be located along the southern portion of Vanderbilt Avenue. This building will provide 95-units of housing for low-income singles and special needs housing, targeting formerly homeless adults who suffer from mental illness.
To facilitate the project’s development, HPD requested a disposition of City-owned property, that the site be rezoned from M1-2 to an R8/C2-4 district, and height and setback waivers for the project’s frontages along Vanderbilt, Clermont, and Flushing Avenues.
The City Planning Commission approved the proposal with one modification. Expressing concerns that the disposition of land and subsequent rezoning could lead to an inappropriately-scaled development, the Commission restricted the disposition to the current project as proposed.
When the proposal reached the Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee hearing, Council Member Letitia James, whose district includes Wallabout, expressed her support for the project. James noted that 65 percent of the project’s 455- units would be affordable to households with incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median income, and urged her colleagues to approve the plan.
The Subcommittee unanimously approved the proposal, and the Land Use Committee and the full Council followed suit.
ULURP Process
Lead Agency:HPD,Neg.Dec.
Comm.Bd.: BK 2,App’d, 37-0-1
Boro.Pres: App’d
CPC: App’d, 11-0-0
Council: App’d, 48-0-3
Council: Navy Green (C 090446 HAK – UDAAP); (C 090444 ZMK – rezoning); (C 090445 ZSK – spec. perm.) (Sept. 30, 2009).