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Discovering Fulton Mall

Media posted July 7, 2010

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"Street Value" Profiles Fulton Mall Work

News posted July 7, 2010

Street Value, a new book by Rosten Woo and Meredith TenHoor with Damon Rich (Princeton Architectural Press), delves into the history, streetscape, culture and politics of Brooklyn's Fulton Street Mall. It includes an interview with the Pratt Center's Vicki Weiner and Randall Mason of Minerva Partners, who collaborated on a Pratt Center report recommending strategies for the Fulton Street Mall's preservation. Weiner and Mason sought to preserve not only the architectural legacy of Brooklyn's premier shopping street but also its role as a home to local retailers serving a large and diverse base of longtime customers.

As Weiner told Woo: "Our big 'ah-ha' moment in the analysis of the data happened when we read through and analyzed the shopper surveys and found that a lot of the perceptions of the mall that we'd heard before were just not true - i.e., it's not successful, it's all discount stores."

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Downtown Brooklyn Commuters

Map posted May 25, 2010

Where Downtown Brooklyn Residents Work and
How They Get There

Until its recent rezoning downtown Brooklyn was more of a commercial area than a residential one, and many who lived there resided in public housing hemmed in from subways and local employment opportunities by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. But the proximity to major employment centers - including MetroTech, Fulton Street retailers and Brooklyn Hospital Center - means downtown Brooklyn rivals Sunset Park for the number of residents who walk or bike to work, at 19 percent.

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Ninth Annual Assembly of the Federation of Brooklyn Block Associations

Event on April 22, 2010

 
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz invites you to the Ninth Annual Assembly of the Federation of Brooklyn Block Associations
 

Event Details

April 22, 2010 - 5:30pm - 8:30pm
Brooklyn Borough Hall

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Stimulus Money for City Point?

Media posted October 13, 2009

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City Point Tax-Exempt Bond Financing

Testimony posted September 10, 2009

Testimony to the New York City Capital Resource Corporation
on $20 million stimulus bond financing for City Point retail complex

September 10, 2009

New York City is fortunate to be receiving tax-exempt bond financing under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the vital purpose of restarting stalled development projects. The issue is whether the City is driving a hard enough bargain and sufficiently advancing public objectives given its investment in providing this source of financing. In choosing Albee Development LLC to be a recipient of the bonds’ benefits, however, the New York City Capital Resource Corporation and other public authorities involved with City Point must recognize the need to make this project work as part of a vibrant and diverse mix of retailers in a shopping district that hundreds of thousands of Brooklyn residents depend on. In exchange for taxpayers’ support to make this project possible, the Capital Resource Corporation must make sure that Fulton Street continues to be a place where independent retailers can thrive.

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Downtown Brooklyn's Fulton Mall

Project posted April 29, 2009

Fulton Mall

Fulton Mall: New Strategies for Preservation and Planning

Amidst the city's broad redevelopment plan for downtown Brooklyn, Fulton Mall: New Strategies for Preservation and Planning seeks to offer ideas for securing the future of Fulton Mall as a vital public place.

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Neighborhood Retail

Project last updated April 7, 2009

Policies and Planning in Support of Local Businesses

The Pratt Center is working with community partners on new neighborhood-based and citywide strategies to strengthen neighborhood retail as a strategy for community economic development in a worsening economy. 

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Downtown Brooklyn's Albee Square Mall

Testimony last updated December 8, 2008

Statement on the Proposed Financing of Albee Square Residential Development
Presented to the New York City Housing Development Corporation

Brad Lander & Paula Crespo
Pratt Center for Community Development
December 8, 2008

Thank you for the opportunity to present this statement regarding the proposed tax-exempt financing of the Albee Square residential development, proposed by Albee Residential Development LLC. We are long-time supporters of the New York City Housing Development Corporation. We appreciate your long-time practicing of prioritizing all-affordable, or mostly affordable, housing developments over 80/20 projects with scarce tax-exempt bonds. We have a number of concerns about the proposed financing, especially the extremely high, $1.9 million worth of tax-exempt bonds per low-income unit. This number is many times what we have seen you approve for past projects. We urge you to proceed with great caution, and not to approve this deal in its current form. In particular, we ask HDC:

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