In partnership with the Brooklyn Music School, Gotham Organization has envisioned a multi-use project that creates mixed-income homeownership, inclusive of 30% for moderate- to middle-income affordable homeownership, in Fort Greene. Brooklyn Music School (BMS), a treasured Brooklyn cultural institution that provides music and performing arts for traditionally underserved populations, to expand its programming and grow its capacity to serve the community in a new space that they will own. Gotham has worked extensively with acclaimed architecture firm FXCollaborative to transform the vacant lot into a development that seamlessly fits with the surrounding architecture and complements the area’s historic look and feel.
130 Felix allows residents to call the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District home for generations through providing a permanently affordable component for homeownership.
Based on 2019 published area media income.
The building design has been crafted to both recall the historic character of the neighborhood and reinvent it in a modern way; an appropriate blend of old and new.
A linchpin of the community, BMS has been providing access to the performing arts regardless of income, age, or experience for 110 years.
FXCollaborative leverages its broad experience in architecture, interiors, and planning to enrich the world with responsible, intelligent, and beautiful design. Recently ranked as the ninth-largest in New York City in Crain’s annual list of the metropolitan area’s top architecture firms, FXCollaborative’s holistic approach integrates client aspirations, urban sensibilities, and a celebration of the craft of building.
The firm’s work ranges from the scale of individual buildings and interiors—office towers, multi-family residences, cultural facilities, workplace, K-12, and higher-education institutions—to the planning of the city, addressing infrastructure and transportation.
Gotham has over 100 years of experience constructing and developing high quality mixed-use buildings throughout New York. The Gotham team has deep experience in a multitude of programs and strategies to create affordable housing ranging from utilization of capital subsidies, public private partnerships, inclusionary housing, renovations and preservation of historic buildings, to new construction on public or private land.
The company has a long history of developing innovative partnerships with New York institutions to build affordable housing, schools, community facilities, and cultural spaces.
Following development and construction, its in-house property management division seamlessly transitions into ongoing building and community management for our affordable developments, operating vibrant communities in stable, financially successful buildings.
A linchpin of the community, BMS has been providing access to the performing arts regardless of income, age, or experience for 110 years.
Brooklyn Music School has experienced explosive growth in the past seven years, from 300 to over 8,000 children, adults, and seniors served. The proposed development plan will enable BMS to continue to serve as a refuge of music, arts, and culture in a rapidly transforming neighborhood.
The updated space will include a brand new dedicated a digital music lab and recording studio that will build on successful city funded programs for at-risk youth and provide vocational training to recent graduates.
Brooklyn Music School provides free or discounted instruction to over 80% of the students it serves.
The programs serve a highly diverse population, with 70 percent of students in school based programs being persons of color and 60 percent coming from families living below the poverty line.
The site has been enlisted by the developer as a Volunteer in the New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program. Documentation outlining investigation findings and proposed site remediation can be accessed via the link below:
DEC Brownfields Cleanup Program Documents
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us at gotham@berlinrosen.com