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COURIER L 4 IFE, NOV. 23–29, 2018 DT
LESSON OVER: The Fleet Place Duffi eld Children’s Center could shutter
to make way for a 21-story tower. Photo by Julianne Cuba
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BY JULIANNE CUBA
This school may be out for
good.
A Fort Greene pre-school
could face the wrecking ball if
the city approves a developer’s
proposal to demolish it and
erect a mixed-use tower in its
place.
Bigwigs at Borough Park–
based builder the Leser Group
want offi cials to green-light a
rezoning application in order
to construct the 21-story tower
at 101 Fleet Pl. — a job that
would boot the Duffi eld Children’s
Center , where more
than 60 2- to 5-year-olds learn
to read and write, from its 20-
year home inside the current
one-story structure at that address.
The developer, which owns
the center’s current building,
originally proposed including
a new public school in its
planned tower, but pulled that
amenity from the formal rezoning
request it submitted
in July, after fl oating various
versions of the scheme for
roughly two years, according
to Community Board 2’s district
manager.
“It’s been kicking around
for a long time — for the longest
time it was going to include
a school, but that’s not
true,” said Rob Perris. “The
drawings I have seen show
an all-new building from the
ground up.”
Online city records show
the rezoning application for
the tower still includes space
for a public school, but both
Perris and a rep for Fort
Greene Councilwoman Laurie
Cumbo said the builders, who
declined to comment on the
development, nixed that part
of the project.
In 2010, some mothers
feared that the Downtownadjacent
pre-school run by
area do-good group Brooklyn
Community Services would
soon shutter to make way for
condos, forcing them to bring
their kids to distant neighborhoods
for their early education.
But leaders of the Fleet
Place learning center between
Myrtle Avenue and Willoughby
Street kept its doors
open despite that speculation,
although they struggled to fi ll
the classrooms’ seats, Perris
said.
“I hate to lose any sort of
useful community center, but
Brooklyn Community Services
has struggled to run the
Duffi eld Children’s Center at
full capacity,” he said.
Executives from the Leser
Group are slated to present
their plans for the tower to
CB2’s Land Use Committee
on Nov. 21 as they wait for offi
cials with the City Planning
Commission to approve their
rezoning request and kick off
the project’s lengthy journey
through the city’s lengthy
Uniform Land Use Review
Procedure, which requires it
go before the panel, Borough
President Adams, the City
Planning Commission, Council,
and ultimately Mayor De-
Blasio.
Cumbo, who holds the key
Council vote on whether the
tower can rise because its plot
sits in her district, is waiting
for feedback from both the
community and the beep before
deciding if she’ll give it
her support, according to a
rep.
Reps for Brooklyn Community
Services declined to comment,
but Cumbo’s rep said
the organization is aware of
the development and plans to
relocate the learning center,
thought it doesn’t yet know
where.
Cutting classrooms
Condos could replace Ft. Greene school
/NYPublicAwareness
/www.nhcaa.org
/www.nyhpa.org