Brooklyn Council will fund study for Bond Street garage use.

City Council member Kenneth Fisher and the Downtown Brooklyn Council, a new advocacy organization comprised of corporate, academic, cultural and medical institutions in Downtown Brooklyn, will jointly fund a study to examine possible reuses of the municipal parking garage located on Bond Street in Down town Brooklyn. The study, which will begin this summer and involve considerable community input, will look at the possibility of tearing down the existing structure and putting up in its place a building or buildings that will further the revitalization of the Livingston Street Corridor.

The Bond Street parking garage, located on Bond Street between Livingston and Schermerhorn streets, is a six-story structure that houses 606 parking spaces.

According to the Department of City Planning's Parking Survey, only 37 percent of the garage is typically used. In addition, the garage's ground floor current uses include vacant retail space, a series of illegal street vendors and a homeless drop-off center.

"With so much demand for space in Downtown Brooklyn, this dilapidated garage is clearly not the highest and best use," said City Council Member Kenneth Fisher.

The reuse of the Bond Street Garage property was a key proposal of a report issued last fall by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and funded by the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, Howard Golden. Redeveloping that property is critical element in broader effort to foster the revitalization Schermerhorn and Livingston streets. Other steps underway include the issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFP) this fall by the Empire State Development Corporation to identify a private entity to purchase and develop the State-owned parking lots on Schermerhorn Street. And 180 Livingston Street was purchased this summer by Argent Ventures, a firm that specializes in the acquisition and operation of properties that serve the real estate needs of the telecommunications and technology industries.

This summer a consultant will be hired to examine existing condition plans and a conduct a physical examination of the premises to determine the site's potential under existing Zoning and potential zoning scenarios.