Marriott Expansion Gets OK from Community Board

The Brooklyn Papers
May 26, 2003

By PATRICK GALLAHUE

The New York Marriott Brooklyn, left next to the city-owned parking lot where $65 million expansion will rise up.

Community Board 2 approved a $65 million extension of the New York Marriott Brooklyn on Wednesday that will allow developers to build over a city-owned garage adjacent to the building.

"We're very much appreciative of the support for the expansion of the hotel and the retail that we will be creating along Adams Street," said Harvey Schultx, Muss Development senior vice-president.

The 180,000-square-foot attached addition, called the Brooklyn Renaissance, is set to rise to 24 stories and accommodate 280 guests.

Included in the plans are 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail in the hotel itself and 43,250 square feet of first- second-floor retail in the adjacent office building at 345 Adams St. by 2007.

The lot is currently occupied by a dilapidated blue-brick parking garage surrounded by scaffolding. The application seeks to turn the lot over to the city Economic Development Corporation to sell to the Marriott.

The application also seeks to demap the abutting Pearl Street, north of Willoughby Street, to expand the predestrian plaza between Adams and Jay streets with benches, planters and new lighting.

The attachment will be built by the Queens-based Muss Development Company, the developers of Renaissance Plaza and the Marriott hotel. Designing the building are Sandy Babcock Architects and William B. Tabler Architects; the landscape architect is the Moss Giklay Group.

Since opening its doors in 1998, the New York Marriott Brooklyn has boasted a 90-percent occupancy rate. It has been named "Marriott Hotel of the Year" two years in a row.

Because of the Marriott's success, the EDC selected the developer "sole source," meaning that it did not go out for bid.

The expansion will be linked to the main hotel by an enclosed, two story bridge on the second and third floors over the promenade connecting Adams Street to Jay Street.

The EDC estimated that the expansion would create 200 new jobs and generate about $2.5 million in annual revenue for the city.

The new guest rooms, added to the existing 376-room hotel, will make the Brooklyn Marriott one of the biggest Marriotts in New York City.

The application will be considered by Borough President Marty Markowitz on May 21. It then goes before the City Planning Commission and the City Council.

Muss Development is hoping to begin the project next year and anticipates the expansion will take 18 months to build.

333 Adams Street between Willoughby and Tillary Streets, Downtown Brooklyn (718-246-7000).