The NY Post has video and renderings of what downtown Brooklyn will look like in 2012. With $9.5 billion in development projects in the works, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is proudly touting its future. The DBP's president Joe Chan told the Post, "This sends a message to the entire city - and even the world - that Brooklyn is in a period of unprecedented growth."
The video, which will be released later today but the Post has an early look, is gives a computer-animated bird's eye view, with new skyscrapers popping up. And the narrator is Ian McKellen, who apparently "did the voice-over for free" while playing King Lear in in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's production of King Lear. And if we could give him an Oscar for best narration of a development video, we would - we love how he pronounces "boulevard" (boo-le-vard).
All told, the projects, which include the BAM Cultural District, numerous commercial- and residential-use private developments, and public improvements, will bring 14,300 residential units, 3.2 million square of office space, and 1,800 hotel rooms - plus new areas like "Willoughby Square Park." The DBP hopes 35,000 new residents will flock to Brooklyn as well.
