COURIER L 14 IFE, NOV. 23–29, 2018 DT
MAKE WAY: A rendering of the two-building complex builders want to
erect on the site of Clinton Hill bar Hot Bird, which is set to close next
month. Morris Adjmi Architects
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BY JULIANNE CUBA
This developer is counting its
blessings.
Clinton Hill civic gurus
approved a real-estate fi rm’s
request to rezone a neighborhood
lot next door to an ancient
church, which the company
promised to restore if
granted permission to erect
a tower on the land now occupied
by a beloved neighborhood
bar.
Community Board 2’s full
board on Nov. 14 green-lit the
rezoning requested by Hope
Street Capital — a real-estateinvestment
fi rm comprised
of builders 550 Clinton Partners
and 539 Vanderbilt Partners
— which is pushing for
the change in order to build
interconnected 29-story and
four-story mixed-use buildings
on land bounded by Atlantic,
Clinton, and Vanderbilt
avenues that is currently
occupied by watering hole Hot
Bird, whose owners plan to
shutter the bar next month,
as well as a car wash, autobody
shop, and kitchen-supply
store.
Together, the proposed
buildings will boast about 286
rental apartments, roughly 55
of which would be below-market
rate.
And in exchange for the city
approving its scheme, the fi rm
promised to restore Clinton
Avenue’s landmarked Episcopal
Church of St. Luke and St.
Matthew between Atlantic Avenue
and Fulton Street, which
desperately needs a facelift,
according to the architect
tapped to construct the tower.
“It is actually in poor
shape, a lot of deterioration
and structural damage,” Morris
Adjmi said during an October
meeting of CB2’s Land Use
Committee, which that month
approved the rezoning request
as part of its journey through
the city’s Uniform Land Use
Review Procedure. “It needs a
substantial amount of repair
work.”
The proposal requires
church leaders to hand over
a little more than a football
fi eld’s worth of buildable sky
space above their property,
or air rights, to the developer
in exchange for it footing the
$4.5-million bill to restore the
roof, steeple, stained-glass
windows, and other parts of
the house of worship.
If the rezoning is approved,
Hope Street Capital bigwigs
will also in perpetuity fund
an endowment of an undisclosed
amount that leaders of
the Episcopal Diocese of Long
Island, which oversees the
church, can use for ongoing
maintenance after the big renovation,
according to the fi rm’s
attorney, who said the scheme
already received the blessing
of offi cials on the Landmarks
Preservation Commission,
who had to sign off on the proposal,
as the church is a city
landmark.
Clergy at St. Luke and St.
Matthew — who serve the community
by operating dance
and theater workshops, drugprevention
programs, and
other support groups — said
the deal would be a gift from
above to the old church, which
is in desperate need of salvation
after several bouts of bad
luck, including four fi res.
“It’s a long-standing beacon
of Clinton Hill, it has
weathered enormous change
in its lifetime and is still going
strong,” said Rev. Julie Hoplamazian.
“It has always been
a home to people who have
needed one.”
CB2’s full board approved
the rezoning request with the
conditions that the developer
cap the cost of its so-called affordable
units at 60 percent
of the area median income,
and include a loading zone
for retailers that will occupy
the new towers’ commercial
space.
The request now moves
onto Borough President Adams,
who will hold a hearing
on it on Nov. 27, then to
the City Planning Commission,
Council, and ultimately
Mayor DeBlasio.
Borough President Adams’s
hearing on the Hope
Street Capital project at Borough
Hall (209 Joralemon
St. between Court Street and
Brooklyn Bridge Boulevard
in Downtown) on Nov. 27 at 6
pm.
‘Hot’ property
Clinton Hill community board approves two-building
project on site of popular watering hole Hot Bird