New Renderings Of The Glitzy Shopping Center To Accompany 42-Story Coney Island Tower
New renderings and details of the glitzy commercial strip that is to replace Trump Village Shopping Center and a shuttered bath house across the street have been revealed.
Rubin Schron’s Cammeby’s International — the developer that bought up the properties at 532 Neptune Avenue and 626 Sheepshead Bay Road — shared the latest sketches for the “Neptune/Sixth” complex, delivering on a promise to include retail, commercial and public space in its planned 42-story, 544-unit residential high rise. The new sketches show a gold, metallic design, rather than the stone building revealed in earlier sketches.
Residents have raised a variety of concerns regarding the 470-foot-tall development at a town hall last year, including fears about parking, overcrowded schools, pollution, sunlight, and noise.
The new shopping strip is intended to house a variety of services and retail options — addressing complaints that residents, particularly seniors, lose access to essential healthcare and shopping amenities with the removal of the old shopping strip.
In addition to the new amenities, the glistening Neptune/Sixth complex will include more than 800 parking spaces and will feature new office space for a variety of businesses, according to a spokesperson for Cammeby’s.
“As longtime investors in Coney Island, we appreciate the unique cultural fabric of this community and have approached Neptune/Sixth with an eye toward creating a true neighborhood destination that supports the needs of residents and positively contributes to the area,” said Jacob Cohen of Cammeby’s. “We look forward to providing existing Coney Island retailers and services with an updated and modern environment in which to grow their businesses, while also welcoming new tenants to enhance the base of amenities for the neighborhood.”
Despite early objections to the tower, the project moved forward, with Cammeby’s rushing to obtain building permits shortly before the state’s lucrative 421-a tax break for developers was set to expire. In May, some business owners at Trump Village Shopping Center filed a lawsuit against Cammeby’s, alleging the developer violated their leases in trying to force them from the building, which is expected to be demolished.
Construction on the development’s first phase – a standalone seven-story, 161,000-square-foot retail and commercial building at 626 Sheepshead Bay Road – recently commenced, and is expected to be completed by summer 2017.
For its second phase, Cammeby’s will begin site work for 90,000 square feet of retail space at Neptune Avenue this fall, plus the residential tower, which is scheduled to break ground in late 2017.
Navid Maqami, design principal at S9 Architecture, which is which is responsible for the design, said the firm researched the neighborhood, its residents, and its businesses before planning the complex. For example, Neptune/Sixth was designed to accommodate the B/Q train tracks that separate both sites.
“Our goal is to transform the existing fragmented fabric into a vibrant urban place where people can work, shop and live,” he said. “The two sites separated by elevated tracks will be linked through careful interventions under the tracks as well as use of similar materials and architectural vocabulary.”
