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Anticipated Downtown Brooklyn office building advances with six-story school in tow

New details have emerged on the planned office building at 420 Albee Square in Downtown Brooklyn, which was first announced in 2015. The city has now officially sold the 3,132-square-foot parcel of land to JEMB Realty, which will allow it to move forward on a 450,000-square-foot office and school building, the first ground-up office development in Downtown Brooklyn since the 2004 rezoning of the neighborhood.

JEMB Realty was announced to develop the site two years ago, but little news has emerged on the project since. Last fall, news emerged that JEMB was partnering with Forest City Ratner on this project, but it’s not yet clear if that is still the case.

What we do know so far is that JEMB plans to build an office building with 380,000 square feet of commercial space, retail on the ground floor, and a 300-seat school. This school will take up the first six floors of the building, and have a separate entrance on Albee Square West.

“We’re bringing long-awaited office space and a school to Downtown Brooklyn, complementing the swell of City investment and new development the neighborhood is seeing,” James Patchett, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the agency that sold the property to JEMB, said in a statement.

JEMB will combine an adjacent 18,000-square-foot property with the one at 420 Albee Square to create what it’s calling One Willoughby Square. Previously Kohn Pedersen Fox was attached to design the building, but they’re no longer on this project, and a new architect has yet to be revealed. Back in 2014, this site was slated for a 65-story residential building, but those plans were scrapped for the office building.

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NYCurbed