Build Up New York Rally in Brooklyn

A controversial new luxury hotel and condo tower with spectacular waterfront views is coming to Brooklyn Bridge Park- despite political opposition to the private development.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation selected Toll Brothers and Starwood Capital Group as the development team for a ten-story hotel with 200 rooms and a five-story condo building with 159 apartment that will be built in the park next to Pier 1 along Furman Street, which will provide $3.3 million a year to maintain Brooklyn Bridge Park, city officials said.

The hotel is to be called 1 Hotel, and the proposed building plan will feature nearly 16,000 square feet of restaurant space, 16,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space, 2,000 square feet of retail space, a 6,000-square-foot spa and fitness center and 300 parking spaces. It also includes park restrooms as well as maintenance space for park operations. The development is expected to generate approximately 210 permanent jobs and 300 construction jobs.

Building trade union members were out in force yesterday protesting and sending a message, that the 550,000-square-foot complex, set to open in fall 2015, is built using union labor.