Google Earth aerial showing massing of 159 Broadway (CItyRealty)
Earlier this year permits were filed for a mixed-use project at 159 Broadway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The long-in-question site, currently a parking lot, is directly south of the Williamsburg Bridge and next door to the Williamsburg Savings Bank (now the event hall Weylin). Last month, the customary zoning application was approved, giving us our first glimpse of what's in store for the property.
To recap, the building application shows the project will rise 26 floors, or 302 feet tall, and host 251 hotel rooms on its first 16 floors and 21 apartments on floors 20 through 23. Stonehill & Taylor is listed as the architects of record while Isaac Hager's Cornell Realty is the owner.
Like the previous shelved designs, drawings show a narrow tower scaling back to just 31 feet wide on the upper floors. There will be nine parking spaces to replace the existing lot but it is unknown if there will be a connection between the project and the event hall next door. The 18th floor will hold amenities and a swimming pool, there will be a large terrace with views towards. Above, the narrower residential floors will partially cantilever over the terrace.
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A previous iteration of the project, called Williamsburg Hotel, called for a 40-story, 440-foot-tall tower designed by Miami-based Oppenheim A+D. Aside from its slender form created by three 16-foot-wide slabs, a distinguishing element would have been its crystalline facade that mimics the structural diagonal steel behind.
According to city records, Cornell Realty picked up the site last fall for $26.2 million. The site is located near Driggs Avenue across from Peter Lugers Steakhouse and just east of George B. Post Plaza. Cornell is also building a 117,000-square-foot office and retail project near the waterfront at 200 Kent Avenue.
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