Is Two Times the Charm for Blumenfeld at Admiral’s Row?
By Lauren Elkies Schram September 16, 2014 6:00 am
reprints
Blumenfeld Development Group, which was dropped as the developer of the decrepit Admiral’s Row, is hoping to win a bid to redevelop the 6.08-acre site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Commercial Observer has learned.
“We are rebidding this proposal with a portfolio of tenants excited to be part of an exciting public-private project,” Brad Blumenfeld, a vice president at BDG, emailed this past weekend.
In July, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which manages the 300-acre Navy Yard on behalf of the city, issued a third request for proposals, or RFP, for Admiral’s Row, a long-neglected series of townhouses that was home to the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s senior officers. The redevelopment includes an adaptive reuse of two of those buildings as well as new construction on a six-acre parcel. The project will include a 74,000-square-foot grocery store, topped by 127,000 square feet of light industrial space; 89,000 square feet of additional retail space; and a 7,000-square-foot office and community facility. The bids for the job are due Oct. 3.
PA Associates was selected following the first RFP, issued in July 2009. PA wasn’t able “to meet the agreed upon time frame,” a Brooklyn Navy Yard Corporation spokesman said. In response to the second RFP in July 2012, Blumenfeld was tapped for the job. But this past December, Blumenfeld was rejected after failing to identify a supermarket operator for Admiral’s Row.
“Blumenfeld Development Group (BDG) failed to satisfy the terms of its conditional designation as the developer of Admiral’s Row,” BNYDC said in a statement at the time of the deal falling apart. “The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation has therefore de-designated BDG as the developer of that project.”
David Ehrenberg, the president and CEO of Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, said the non-profit would consider Blumenfeld again.
When asked for a comment about being de-designated, Brad Blumenfeld, a vice president at BDG, emailed the following: “The aftershocks from Superstorm Sandy made this intricate, historic project far more complex, more expensive and more challenging to redevelop. But BDG has learned much from its prior experience and the imposition of new FEMA requirements that mandate lifting much of the property as much as five feet to keep it out of the new flood plain.”
As for other RFP respondents, BNYDC won’t disclose them prior to designating a developer.
