The historic Offerman Building is undergoing a residential conversion that will bring 121 luxury rentals to Downtown Brooklyn this spring. The units will be perched along the building’s five upper floors and, according to a November article from the New York Times, layouts will range from studio to three-bedrooms and will be priced between $2,900 and $5,000 per month.
The landmarked building is owned by United American Land, and Greenberg Farrow Architects is handling its adaptive reuse. The building, whose residential address will be 248 Duffield Street, has already rehabilitated its lower floors with Nordstrom Rack and Old Navy. UAL is also responsible for a modern retail building next door, which houses an H&M.
Rendering of the Duffield Street frontage of the Offerman House; image via GreenbergFarrow
The Offerman Building was finished in 1893 and built by the wealthy president of the Brooklyn Sugar Refinery, Henry Offerman. The dignified structure was designed by Danish architect Peter J. Lauritzen for the dry goods department store S. Wechsler & Brother. The landmarks designation report says when Fulton Street had an elevated train line traversing it, passengers could catch glimpses into its second story sales-floor and admire the building’s elaborate details. Light-colored brick, limestone, and terracottas clad the building's flower-festooned archways —distinguishing its Fulton Street elevation.
Skylit rotunda, GreenbergFarrow
Lounge, GreenbergFarrow
Fitness Center, GreenbergFarrow
New renderings published on GreenbergFarrow’s page show a skylit, 30-foot-wide interior rotunda, that an architect on the project was shocked to find hiding behind various layers of building materials. Another rendering shows a sprawling roof deck, programmed with both intimate and open areas, to include a movie screening area, lawns, grilling stations, hammocks and various seating configurations. The bird’s eye view also shows that apartments, within a newly-built penthouse floor, will have private terraces.
Citi Habitats will be handling leasing and a long-running registration site remains live. The apartments will be everything but cookie-cutter and some will feature 15-foot high ceilings, over-sized windows (some arched), platform floors, cast-iron columns and reclaimed wood floors. With most high-end rentals in Downtown Brooklyn being new construction, Offerman House will corner a stylish niche in the marketplace.
Collage of historic details via Offerman House Registration Site
Pre-restoration details via Offerman House Registration Site
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