BellTel Lofts
101 Willoughby Street | also 365 Bridge Street, 7 Metrotech Center | Downtown Brooklyn | built 1930
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1929
New York Telephone buys twelve houses at Bridge and Willoughby Streets to clear a site for its Brooklyn tower
The telephone company announced in September 1929 that it had bought twelve houses on a lot measuring 100 by 225 feet, at the northeast corner of Willoughby and Bridge Streets. The houses were cleared by November 1929, the month the Cauldwell-Wingate Company was awarded the construction contract. The block was then redeveloped as the company's Long Island headquarters, planned to hold about 3,500 employees moved from other buildings. This entry describes the earlier houses on the lot.
“…acquired twelve houses at the northeast corner of Willoughby and Bridge Streets, occupying a lot measuring 100 by 225 ft…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1929
Ralph Walker's plans for the telephone tower give its brick facade a draped, curtain-like look
Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker filed plans for the tower at the end of November 1929. Ralph Walker's Art Deco design draws most of its ornament from the way its bricks are laid. The walls use about 2.649 million bricks and have 1,141 windows. The brick in the central sections of the two main fronts sits at slightly differing depths, producing a curtain-like, draped effect, and several entrances are framed by woven-looking brickwork nodding to German Expressionism.
“The BellTel Lofts' facade incorporated about 2.649 million bricks and 1,141 windows.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1931
The New York Telephone building opens as the company's second-largest, with 2,200 employees
The 27-story tower on Willoughby Street was formally opened on October 28, 1931, ranking second in size among New York Telephone's buildings after the Barclay-Vesey Building in Manhattan. At its dedication it served as the Long Island headquarters and had 2,200 employees. Staff were brought in from seven other Brooklyn buildings. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce named it the best business structure in Brooklyn for 1931.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
NYNEX plans a $30 million training center inside the telephone building
By the late 1980s the building served as customer service offices with some switching equipment, and parts of it stood empty. In early 1989, as MetroTech Center was being developed, NYNEX announced it would renovate parts of this building and the one at 360 Bridge Street as a training center. The 260,000-square-foot New York Telephone Learning Center at MetroTech was meant to train about 35,000 workers each year, at a cost of roughly $30 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2004
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the former Long Island headquarters of New York Telephone
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the tower as a city landmark on September 21, 2004, after a public hearing that June. Two speakers backed designation, one of them speaking for the owner, Verizon New York, and the other for the Historic Districts Council; nobody spoke against. The commission called the building an outstanding example of Art Deco applied to a skyscraper and praised its brickwork and metal ornament.
“Landmarks Preservation Commission September 21, 2004, Designation List 356 ... There were no speakers opposed to designation.”
- 2005
David Bistricer buys the telephone building and turns it into the BellTel Lofts condominiums
In February 2005 Verizon sold the building to David Bistricer, whose company Clipper Equity converted it into a residential condominium with the address 365 Bridge Street. The name BellTel came from the Bell Telephone sign hanging above the Bridge Street entrance. Beyer Blinder Belle designed the 250 apartments, and sales opened in October 2006 with 25 units listed. The market was crowded with new Downtown Brooklyn apartments, and sales were slow for years.
“The development was named after the Bell Telephone sign hanging over the Bridge Street entrance.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
The Real World leases a BellTel penthouse, then loses it over building permits
In 2008, during the 21st season of the TV show The Real World, the show's production team leased one of the building's penthouses. The lease was canceled because of trouble getting construction permits. At the time the upper floors of the conversion were still unfinished two years after sales began, and the developers were struggling to sell apartments.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
The federal government leases the ground-floor storefronts for a child care center
The developers had trouble renting out about 100,000 square feet of ground-level storefronts at BellTel Lofts. In 2010 the General Services Administration signed a ten-year lease for that space and opened a child care center there for 76 children. By 2011 more than 130 of the condominium units had been sold, and the count reached 175 by 2013.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- BellTel LoftsWikipedia
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