Oro, 306 Gold Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 306 Gold Street by Carter Horsley

If you take aim from Manhattan across the Manhattan Bridge and from across the Brooklyn Bridge you will hit Oro, which is to say that from high up in the Oro condominium tower in Downtown Brooklyn looking to the northwest you can look directly across the roadways of both the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges from the same vantage point.

No matter how you slice it, that's pretty cool and very dramatic.

The Oro is the attractive, 40-story condominium apartment tower at 306 Gold Street in Downtown Brooklyn. 

It has 303 units.

The building, which is also known as 147-157 Flatbush Avenue Extension and 151-165 Johnson Street, was designed by Ismael Leyva, whose other buildings include 785 Eighth Avenue in the Theater District of Manhattan. When this building was completed, it was the tallest structure to be completed in Brooklyn in about 80 years.

Bottom Line

The tallest building in Brooklyn when it was completed in 2008, this impressive tower has great views and many amenities.

Description

It is distinguished by its sheared-off rooftop, which almost conceals its exposed watertank, its rounded corners, and the pale orange-brick masonry of the center sections of its façades with square, inset windows.

The building's tower is setback on its 7-story base and its corners have thin, protruding elements beneath the windows at the corners for all but the top seven floors and as such they are very discrete design touches that add a good sense of rhythm and texture to the tower.

Amenities

Building amenities include a doorman, a two-level, state-of-the-art fitness center with a basketball/racquetball court, a resident lounge with screening room and wet bar, an indoor swimming pool, private storage, a bicycle room, and a parking garage.

Apartments

Each residence features Brazilian hard wood floors throughout.

Kitchens have matte lacquer cabinetry, Quarella Lagos Blue Engineered Stone countertops complemented by ice-glass backsplashes, and GE stainless steel appliances.

Bathrooms have Durango stone walls, soaking tubs, glass-enclosed showers, cherry wood and sycamore vanities, Ozer white countertops, Zucchetti/Isyfresh faucets, and Porcher/Cubo fixtures.

A studio on the 4^th floor has a 15-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen and a long entrance foyer.

Apartment D on floors 9 through 41 has a 19-foot-long living/dining roo9m with a pass-through kitchen and a 12-foot-long alcove.  The unit on the 9^th floor also has a 417 square foot terrace.

Apartment E is a one-bedroom unit on floors 20 through 41 that has a long entry foyer that passes a pass-through kitchen in the 18-foot-long living/dining room.

A two bedroom apartment is a two-bedroom unit at the building’s southeast corner on floors 20 through 41 has a 23-foot-long living/dining room with a curved wall of windows and a 10-foot-long alcove and a pass-through kitchen.

Apartment A on floors 40 and 41 is a three-bedroom unit with a 16-foot-long living room with a curved window wall, a 12-foot-long alcove and an open, pass-through kitchen.

History

In 2005, the city rezoned this area to encourage high-rise construction between the Manhattan Bridge and Fulton Street, especially along the Flatbush Avenue corridor.

Greenfield Partners, a private equity fund based in South Norwalk, Conn., bought out the building’s original investors, United Homes, which was led by Ron Herscho, and Palin Enterprises, headed by Dean Palin, who are still involved in the Oro II, 38-story, hotel-and-apartment complex planned for 311 Gold Street and also designed in very similar style by Mr. Leyva.

An article by Linda Collins in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said that a Hilton Hotel would occupy the lower 25 floors at Oro II beneath about 74 apartments. A brownstoner.com article in October, 2009, however said that Oro II's "pit in the ground has been filled and smoothed over," adding that "we're assuming the work was just to clean up the site for long-term lay-away." 

Location

It is the part of a cluster of high-rise towers including the Avalon Fort Greene and the Toren, but its location is closest to Manhattan resulting in it having best views of the city of this trio.