
Near the top of the 1,066-foot Brooklyn Tower in Downtown Brooklyn, wind whipped across the unfinished concrete slab, and the developer, Michael Stern, showcased the stunning, sky-high views.
There was the shimmering New York harbor; the distant beaches of Queens; the mottled rooftops of low-rise Brooklyn; and the building’s closest spiritual kin: the supertall condos of Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row.
But don’t expect a tour.
“The price of admission to the observation deck?” Mr. Stern deadpanned. “You’ve got to buy or rent a unit.”
After five years of construction, his firm, JDS Development Group, has nearly completed the city’s first and only supertall tower outside Manhattan — defined as exceeding 300 meters, or 984 feet. The next tallest tower in the borough, the nearby Brooklyn Point condo, is almost 350 feet shorter than the Brooklyn Tower — the difference of a Statue of Liberty, plus a few townhouses stacked on top.
complaints of serious construction defects last year at the nearly 1,400-foot tower at 432 Park Avenue on Billionaires’ Row may have fueled more hesitancy about their future.
tax breaks from the city. The income-restricted units, all but 19 of which will be studios or one-bedrooms, will be pegged to renters making 130 percent of the area median income.