DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A local business improvement district wants to roll out the red carpet directly to the Barclays Center.
On the heels of a $23 million city project to make improvements to Flatbush Avenue from the Manhattan Bridge to the Fulton Street Mall in 2009, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership says it is working with politicians to push for millions more to extend those upgrades directly to the stadium, according to their website.
"DBP is working with public officials to raise money for the extension of the Flatbush Avenue streetscape project south from Fulton Street to connect the center of the district to the new Barclays Center. The next phase, which is estimated to cost around $7 million, would run from Dekalb Avenue to 4th Avenue," the business improvement district wrote on its website.
The second phase would include a new median, sidewalks, benches, light poles and planting, according to the blurb on the DBP site.
Reps for the Partnership cautioned that the second phase of the project is still a long way off, adding in an email: "There currently is no Flatbush Ave project. It is aspirational."
But the BID included the street improvements as part of its list of "current projects," adding that they are also working "with local stakeholders to advocate for streetscape improvements across the area," to make them possible.
Representatives for two of the area's elected officials — City Councilwoman and Public Advocate-elect Tish James, and City Councilman Stephen Levin — said they were not familiar with the project.
The initial phase of Flatbush Avenue development — completed in 2012 — added new street and pedestrian lights, a landscaped median in the street complete with greenery and benches, new pedestrian crosswalks, and sewer and water main upgrades to Flatbush Avenue between Tillary and Fulton Streets, according to a press release issued by the mayor's office in 2009.
