Brooklyn’s Tallest Tower Developers Request Demolition Of Part Of Landmarked Dime Savings Bank

We’ve been discussing developer JDS Development’s plans to build Brooklyn’s tallest skyscraper at 340 Flatbush Avenue Extension ever since they bought the property and began filing plans and renderings a few months ago, but now the chatter is heating up, thanks to a New York Times article that also reveals a few new details.

What we already knew:

• The tower will be residential and stand over 1,000 feet tall — at least 225 feet taller than initial building plans.
• It is being built by JDS Development and designed by SHoP Architects, which also designed Barclays Center.
• The skyscraper is made possible by the shifting of 300,000 square feet of development and air rights for the historic and landmarked Dime Savings Bank next door at 9 DeKalb Avenue.
• The Dime Savings Bank will be leased as retail and restaurant space, and will serve as a grand entrance to the tower next door.
• Developers Michael Stern and Joe Chetrit have a history of merging historic architecture and structures with brand new ones, He converted a former Verizon facility on West 18th Street into a luxury condo building called Walker Tower. At 111 W. 57th St., he is erecting a 1,400-foot ultraluxury condo tower that will incorporate the landmarked former Steinway & Sons piano showroom.
• Construction is slated to be done by 2019.

New info we are now finding out:

• The tower will actually be 1,066 feet tall with 73 stories and 90 floors (we’re not sure how that works, exactly, but that’s what the plans say), 550 residential units across 466,000 square feet of space, plus 140,000 square feet of commercial space.
• 20 percent of the apartments will be marked “affordable” or below-market-rate.
• The plans are to demolish part of the landmarked Dime Savings Bank in order to connect it to the new tower. This would require approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission.The first hearing is scheduled for March 15.
• Also to be demolished is a five-story triangular building that currently sits on the 340 Flatbush Avenue Extension site.
• The design “drew inspiration from the limestone-columned Dime Savings Bank. . . The bronzed ribbons running up the tower’s glassy sides draw on details of the bank, and its hexagonal shape echoes the bank’s footprint.”
• The Dime Savings Bank dome is slated to be restored, with leftover marble incorporated into the new tower’s design.

What do you think of this tower and new information? Are you excited or worried about the change to Downtown Brooklyn, just a stone’s throw from Fort Greene?