A ceremonial groundbreaking was held last week for the large Navy Green project that will occupy most of the block bounded by Flushing, Clermont, Park and Vanderbilt Avenues in the Fort Greene/Wallabout section near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The site was formerly used for a brig until 1966.

It is being developed by L + M Development Partners and Dunn Development Corp., and will ultimately have four large buildings and 23 townhouses clustered around a center court.

The project will eventually house more than 450 apartments and some apartments will be available to a family of four making as little as $23,760, according to a September 25, 2010 article by Stephen Brown at brooklynpaper.com.

A September 22, 2010 article by Joey at ny.curbed.com said that 77 percent of the units will be for families earning 30 to 130 percent of the Area Median income, "which maxes out at $103,000 for a family of four, or $72,150 for single-person households.

The project's first phase consists of a 8-story building with 101 rental units on Clermont Avenue near Park Avenue and an 8-story "supportive housing" building with 96 units on Vanderbilt Avenue, which is shown at the right.

To oversee the development of the site's master plan, design and LEED certification, Navy Green Joint Venture selected the architectural team of FXFowle Architects, Curtis + Ginsberg Architects LLP and Architecture in Formation.

Ron Moelis is CEO and chairman and Sanford Lowentheil is vice chairman of L + M Development Partners.

The Department of Housing, Preservation & Development issued a RFP for the redevelopment of the Brig, a 104,600-square-foot site located in the Wallabout/Fort Greene section of Brooklyn in July 2006. The Brig, adjacent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was originally a federal naval prison and was later used as a City correctional facility.

The RFP follows an International Design Workshop hosted by HPD in December 2003 and a Community Task Force on the future of the site announced by Mayor Bloomberg in July 2004.

Supportive housing is subsidized permanent housing with social services. The Supportive Housing building will provide housing and social services, such as access to medical care, recreation and vocational training, to chronically homeless single adults and low-income single adults through a partnership with Brooklyn Community Housing and Services, Inc. as part of the City and State's New York/New York III initiative - an agreement signed by City and State officials in 2005 to create 9,000 units of supportive housing for the neediest New Yorkers.

"Navy Green is a culmination of many community-driven planning sessions with local stakeholders and government agencies to arrive at a plan that incorporates best practices of urban planning and housing development," said Deb Howard, Executive Director of Pratt Area Community Council. "We are particularly proud to be the developer of the Supportive Housing facility as we, along with other nonprofits around the city, strive to reduce the homeless population by providing safe and affordable housing."

"Working in concert with L+M Development Partners, Dunn Development and Pratt Area Community Council we are casting off the shackles of the past, and charting a bright new future for the tenants who will call Navy Green home and the entire Wallabout community," NYC Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Rafael E. Cestero declared last week.