Everyone loves Brooklyn, and that’s especially true of its president, Marty Markowitz, the borough’s biggest promoter, salesman, and cheerleader. “My agenda as borough president is to focus on one thing: making Brooklyn a better place to live now, and for future generations,” he said. “Remember, if it’s good for Brooklyn residents and businesses, it’s good for New York City.”

Downtown Brooklyn is at the forefront of the dramatic changes that have been taking place across the borough’s landscape. More than 5,000 condominium units, 2,000 hotel rooms, and hundreds of thousand of square feet of retail and office space are in the development pipeline. They will transform the look and feel of the neighborhood.

Big development deals are a significant part of the action. Last Thursday, a joint venture of Acadia Realty Trust, P/A Associates, AvalonBay Communities, and MacFarlane Partners agreed to purchase the lease on the Gallery at Fulton Street, its attached parking lot, and the former Albee Square Mall from Thor Equities for about $125 million. The land under the mall and the parking lot are owned by New York City.

The new owners plan to demolish the facility and construct a 1.6 million-square-foot mixed-use complex called the Center at Albee Square which will have retail, office, and residential rental units. Arcadia and P/A Associates will develop 475,000 square feet of retail space that may include a major discount department store. AvalonBay Communities and MacFarlane Partners will build 1,000 rental apartments, 20% of them for tenants of moderate incomes. The two joint ventures would build and construct a total of more than 125,000 square feet of office space. The new owners will also receive about $1.8 million in city tax subsidies through sales tax exemptions and a mortgage tax waiver.

As I reported last September, the City University of New York and Forest City Ratner Cos. plan to begin construction of a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use tower in the heart of downtown Brooklyn later this year. The development on the campus of the New York City College of Technology, to be located at 300 Jay St. in the MetroTech Center, will occupy an entire city block bounded by Jay, Johnson, and Tillary streets. The first eight floors will house classrooms and a majority of the urban college campus; the upper floors will be for luxury residential condominiums.

Meanwhile, Polytechnic University is exploring a joint venture with Forest City Ratner Cos. on its campus in MetroTech, real estate sources said. The transaction would include the sale of about 800,000 square feet of available air rights for development. In addition, it is rumored that Forest City has plans to construct a residential condominium on the former site of Brooklyn Technical High School; the school would move to MetroTech.

HOTELS

Before 1998, when the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge opened at 333 Adams St., a new hotel had not been built in the borough for 68 years. In October, a 24-story, 280-room hotel opened adjacent to the Marriott, an expansion that brings the overall number of rooms to 660 rooms, making it one of the largest hotels in New York.

There are about 773 hotel rooms under construction, and industry leaders expect more than 2,000 rooms to arrive in downtown Brooklyn in the next five years.

This spring, Boymelgreen Developers plans to open the 93-room Smith Hotel at 75 Smith St. at Atlantic Avenue. The hotel will be located in a 13-story building that will also house 50 luxury residential condominiums.

Later this year, McSam Hotels plans to begin construction of a moderate-priced hotel with about 200 rooms at Nevins and Scherhorn streets.

In the fall, the Lam Group is expected to complete a 300-room Sheraton and a 200-room Starwood Aloft Hotel, a spinoff of its W Hotel chain. These properties will be adjoining lots at 216–228 Duffield St. near Willoughby Street. Real estate sources said a luxury hotel, possibly Brooklyn’s first W Hotel, may be headed to Flatbush Avenue.

The building spree has prompted a warning from the president of McSam Hotels, Sam Chang: “The hospitality market in downtown Brooklyn does not need all these rooms and cannot absorb the supply.”

RESIDENTIAL AND CULTURAL EXPANSION

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership estimates 20 residential development projects are under construction, and 20 more projects are planned in the area; 3,991 condo units under construction or recently completed, and an additional 1,140 condo units are planned.

The city has announced plans to transform the area between Fulton and Lafayette streets near Fort Green Park into Brooklyn’s cultural center. The $650 million Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District will be built around the Brooklyn Academy of Music and will include a theater and arts library, a dance studio, a public park, a museum and gallery, an underground parking lot, and a residential high-rise. The project will include the 299-seat Theater for a New Audience designed by Frank Gehry. The dance studio would be located inside the 20-story residential tower with 150 apartments, half of which would be affordable housing.

“The area is around BAM, and all of downtown Brooklyn is growing,” the president of Newmark Knight Frank, James Kuhn, said. “Park Slope is hot, especially since the upzoning of Fourth Avenue.”

The Clarett Group is developing a 30-story tower with 108 units, called Forte, at 230 Ashland Place in the Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District. About 65% of the condominiums reportedly are priced at less than $1 million, and residents are benefiting from discounted real estate taxes stemming from the 15-year 421a tax abatement.

In 2003, a joint venture of Hamlin Ventures and Time Equities acquired a two-acre site to construct a mixed-use development on the Hoyt-Schermerhorn urban renewal site. It is constructing a development of 500,000 square feet that includes new market-rate singlefamily townhouses, lofts and apartments, and 217 units of affordable housing aimed at providing housing for former homeless people and residents with special needs. The remainder will be for artists, lowincome workers, and a mix of retail, cultural, and commercial uses. The first phase of the project, 14 townhouses, has been completed. The second phase, Schermerhorn House — a residence for Common Ground and the Actors’ Fund featuring affordable housing, a café, and a black box theater — is under construction.

“As a result of market forces and public actions, specifically rezoning, downtown Brooklyn is experiencing a surge of new, primarily residential development that will strengthen adjacent neighborhoods and invigorate the downtown core,” the principal of Hamlin Ventures, Abby Hamlin, said. “The new development will connect vibrant residential communities to downtown’s retail, cultural and business center.”

The sales office opened last month for Oro Condo, a development of Ron Herscho and Dean Palin. The pair of 40-story condominium towers, with a price tag of $400 million, is the tallest new construction in Brooklyn. Located at 306 Gold St., Oro Condo was the first ground-up residential highrise condominium built after approval in 2004 of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan, which rezoned the area to permit larger residential as well as commercial development.

“Since the opening of the sales office last month, we have contracts for 56 apartments at a level much higher than anticipated,” Mr. Palin said.

In January, AvalonBay Communities purchased a parcel of land on the southern portion of the block bounded by Gold Street, Flatbush Avenue, Myrtle Avenue, and Prince Street. The company paid about $70 million to an assemblage of sellers. The company expects to begin construction in the second half of 2007 of a 42-story residential rental tower.

Later this year, North Development Group will begin construction of a 21-story residential condominium tower with 108 units. The building will be located at 85 Flatbush Ave. Extension at Tillary and Duffield streets. The company is also planning to begin construction of a 70-unit condominium tower at Nassau Street near the Manhattan Bridge

“The demonstrated high demand for Brooklyn defines it as the leading destination for the young urban professional and growing families looking for affordable, high-quality housing, driving the absorption of new condominium development,” the president of Metropolitan Valuation Services, Steve Schleider, said.

A partner at Aria Microwave Systems, Wayne Cheo, added: “The proximity to Wall Street, the Brooklyn and New York City courts, MetroTech, and endless transportation makes downtown Brooklyn an idea place to live.”

A number of other residential condominium developments are in development in downtown Brooklyn.

Berkshire Capital is converting the 27-story, 509,000-square-foot Verizon Building at 7 Metro Tech Center into 244 condominium units and 34,000 square feet of retail.

In Brooklyn Heights, at 166 Montague St., the 10-story, 50,000-square-foot landmarked Franklin Trust building is being converted from office into residential condominiums.

The former home of the New York City Board of Education at 110 Livingston St. has been converted into a 300-unit condominium, a development of Two Trees Management.

The former headquarters of Williamsburgh Savings Bank, the landmarked tower at One Hanson Place, is being converted into 189 luxury condominiums by the Dermot Co. and Canyon Johnson Urban Funds.

“The addition of nationally recognized retail names that are looking in the marketplace will bring a new shopping experience to this area,” a principal at PRD Realty, Scott Domansky, said. “Citibank and Borders Books have taken the base of the Williamsburgh Bank Building. The Target store located in the Atlantic Mall is known to be one of the top three revenue producing stores within Target’s chain.”

THE OFFICE MARKET

Class A office space is needed all over the city, especially in downtown Brooklyn.

The Treeline Cos. has announced plans to construct a 120,000-square-foot Class A office building at 177 Livingston St., with completion scheduled before summer.

“We are in the process of redeveloping the property, a portion of the Macy’s stores on Fulton Mall that was being underutilized,” the executive vice president of Treeline Cos., Michael Shor, said. “The property is synergistic with our similar redevelopment of 180 Livingston Street across the street, where we have the MTA as our major tenant. Our view is that Livingston Street is the next area of office development, along with the exciting retail and residential opportunities in the area. In a way, Livingston Street is the gateway to the Atlantic Terminal, the Nets stadium, and the Ratner project, as well as to Albee Square.”

“If there’s one thing downtown Brooklyn needs, it’s a better office supply,” a principal, at the Hudson Cos., David Kramer, said. “When Hudson was looking for office space recently for our own business, we were disappointed in the availability of basically tired, Class B office space. As residential and retail continue to develop in downtown Brooklyn, the area could still stand to benefit from improved office supply, which would continue Brooklyn’s journey as a 24/7 standalone location.”

I concur with the president of Sholom & Zuckerbrot Realty LLC, Frank Zuckerbrot, when he says downtown Brooklyn “is very active and arguably the strongest development market in New York City. It is truly going through a renaissance.”

Mr. Stoler, a contributing editor to The New York Sun, is a television broadcaster and senior principal at a real estate investment fund. He can be reached at mstoler@newyorkrealestatetv.com.