The Bloomberg administration is investing $15 million in downtown Brooklyn's gritty Fulton Street Mall shopping district, as part of an overhaul that will include modernized bus shelters, benches and other contemporary street furniture, with more lighting and trees, a city official said.
"You'll have a great new open space a la Herald Square at 34th Street in Manhattan, and an overhaul of the Fulton Mall's physical environment," said Joseph Chan, president of the city's Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.
He said the city would also invest $3 million to $4 million to create 10,000 square feet of green space at the former Albee Square mall site.
"The goal is to not only to create a place where people can hang out but a place where summer events and programming can be hosted," said Chan. "There can be movable seating like at Bryant Park [in Manhattan]."
The project is part of a $40 million public investment in downtown Brooklyn streetscape improvements headed by the city Economic Development Corp.
The new open space will border the historic Dime Savings Bank building and former Albee Square Mall property on Fulton Street, which is being transformed into 625,000 square feet of new retail and office space and 800 to 900 residential units, said officials.
The plaza will include trees and plantings, seating and lighting.
Construction is set to begin in spring 2008 following a public review, and plans include closing off part of DeKalb Avenue.
Chan said a "big problem" with Fulton Street Mall - which attracts 100,000 shoppers a day - is its "physical environment is outdated and not welcoming from a shopping standpoint."
Other downtown streetscape improvements are also in the works for two corridors leading into Brooklyn - via the Manhattan Bridge to Flatbush Avenue and the Brooklyn Bridge to Boerum Place - and at the BAM Cultural District. Later this month, construction will kick off on a new quarter-mile boulevard along Boerum Place from Fulton Street to Atlantic Avenue, extending a continuous planted median from the Brooklyn Bridge to Atlantic Avenue.
The improvements will also make it easier for pedestrians to cross.
As the Post reported last October, the city wants to breathe life into the long-neglected Flatbush Avenue corridor into Brooklyn via the Manhattan Bridge by filling it with large trees, better lighting and a signature sculpture.
Construction on that plan will start later this year and be completed by 2009.
