Developer Files for Rezoning of Brooklyn's Broadway Junction

Plans are moving forward for the rezoning of Brooklyn’s Broadway Junction, a three-block triangular site in proximity to one of the borough’s busiest subway stations.

Developer Totem publicly filed rezoning plans last week, according to a report in the New York Daily News. In the filing, the Brooklyn-based firm disclosed it is aiming to add 596 affordable units to a proposed 1.7M SF project.

The development would include four new towers ranging from 20- to 30-stories tall, encompassing 748K SF of office space and 248K SF of retail.

According to the plans, Totem’s development would eliminate Herkimer Street between Williams Place and Fulton Street to allow for the creation of a contiguous parcel on the site. The development at Broadway Junction is expected to be constructed in four phases spread over a decade.

“This would allow for a vibrant, transit-oriented new development that would take into account, hopefully, a reflection of what the needs of the community have been asking for over many decades now, which is affordable housing, retail and space for jobs to grow,” Tucker Reed, a principal at Totem, told the Daily News.

The proposed development, currently known as Herkimer-Williams, would tower over the surrounding industrial neighborhood of East New York. Boris Santos, a director of the East New York Community Land Trust, told the newspaper that area residents have several concerns about the project.

“Right now, some of the points of concern speak to height, usage, demapping of a street, offering maximal public benefits and more,” Santos said, according to the report. “We are in the understanding that those are the conversations that the developer will be entering with the community, and we look forward to affecting the proposal to our wants and needs.”

“Now that the project has reached this milestone, we are able to get more specific about our wishes, concerns, and timelines, particularly how they would intersect with the many public dollars coming to Broadway Junction for long overdue infrastructure and streetscape improvements,” Sandy Nurse, a city council member, said in a statement.

Broadway Junction is the MTA’s third-busiest station complex in Brooklyn, with an estimated 100,000 daily users.

In May, NYC and state officials announced plans to spend up to $500M on a renovation of the Broadway Junction station to upgrade accessibility, improve street safety and create new plazas.

The Human Resources Administration is preparing to move into a new office at 2440 Fulton St. near the proposed Herkimer-Williams site, and the city recently unveiled a refurbished Callahan-Kelly Playground.