REMARKS
Council Member Restler's remarks on landmarking the Edison building in Downtown Brooklyn
0:05:37
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123 sec
Council Member Lincoln Restler expresses support for landmarking 345 Adam Street, the Edison building in Downtown Brooklyn, while emphasizing the need for flexibility in future retail space use.
He highlights the building's importance in revitalizing Downtown Brooklyn and its unique ownership structure.
- Restler stresses the need for Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to work with the developer on a flexible master storefront plan
- He emphasizes the importance of maintaining dynamic business occupancy in the retail spaces
- Restler expresses hope that LPC will be a good partner to the community despite voting before the master storefront plan is resolved
Lincoln Restler
0:05:37
Thanks so much, chair Salamanca.
0:05:38
It is good to be with you all today.
0:05:42
I'm proud that we are Landmarking 345 Adam Street, the Edison building in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn.
0:05:49
At a time when Downtown Brooklyn was a very different place, 28 years ago, the renovation of this building, activation of storefronts made a critical difference in revitalizing the kind of heart of downtown Brooklyn.
0:06:04
This is a building that my Brooklyn colleagues know well because the BOE is in there.
0:06:08
This is a building that has an unusual ownership structure where it's partially owned by the city and Decast, and the ground 2 floors are owned by a private developer that have activated the space for economic development purposes.
0:06:21
While I think this building is absolutely meritorious of landmark designation and I support the effort, I do wanna underscore on the record our expectation that landmarks, that LPC works closely with Musk, the developer who owns the retail spaces to develop a master storefront plan that allows for, you know, ongoing utilization of this space and where we're not overly kind of hamstrung by landmarks to that will prevent or prohibit dynamic businesses from from occupying these retail spaces.
0:06:55
They are really important for the dynamism and economic vitality of Downtown Brooklyn.
0:07:01
And we wanna make sure that LPC is flexible and thoughtful in creating a master storefront plan that meets the needs of future the existing and future small businesses in these retail spaces.
0:07:12
So I really appreciate the opportunity to comment briefly on this and and stay clearly on the record that I you know, we want LPC to work flexibly with our community.
0:07:22
I prefer to have that master storefront plan resolved before I'm voting, but we are where we are, and sometimes we don't control everything.
0:07:31
So we are taking a leap of faith.
0:07:33
The LPC is gonna be a good actor and a good partner to our community, and I I really do hope that they follow through.
0:07:39
So thank you very much.
