Beep Hails MTA's Intent To Sell Downtown Brooklyn Property

The amount of publicly held property in Downtown Brooklyn may get even smaller.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Monday that it intended to sell a multi-story office building at 370 Jay St. along with several other holdings in the five boroughs as a way to close a looming budget gap.

Totaling 400,000 square-feet of office space, the building is the largest of nine properties on MTA's list to be sold.

“We are fully committed to deriving the maximum value we can from our real estate holdings, and I’m pleased that our thorough review of the properties we own or otherwise control in the city has turned up a number of opportunities,” said MTA director of real estate Jeffrey Rosen.

At the same time, Rosen acknowledged that the sale of the properties—four of which are in Brooklyn—would represent "a tiny fraction" of MTA's capital funding needs.

Echoing calls from development advocates like the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Borough President Marty Markowitz enthusiastically welcomed news of the MTA's intention to sell 370 Jay St.

"Now the city can finally move forward with plans to transform 370 Jay St. into a job-creating economic anchor in Downtown Brooklyn, supporting the growth of neighboring Class A tenants and existing academic and cultural institutions," Markowitz said.

Some of the longstanding issues related to the building, which still houses communication equipment for the transit agency, include semi-permanent sidewalk scaffolding and a black scrim to protect passersby from the structure's crumbling facade.

State Senator Daniel Squadron said the nearly abandoned building has been a "blight on Downtown Brooklyn," even as the neighborhood around it grew.

"Taking 370 Jay Street out of mothballs and into use will mean dramatic progress in a keystone location for Downtown Brooklyn," he said in a statement.

News of the potential sale of 370 Jay St. came days after Community Board 2's Land Use Committee of the Brooklyn Municipal Building at 210 Joralemon St., across from Borough Hall.

That property, which includes 49,000-square-feet of restaurant and retail space, .