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The restoration of McCarren Park and its historic swimming pool in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brook­lyn, N.Y., is bringing families and new sophistication to the formerly industrial neighborhood. The new boutique Hotel Williamsburg at McCarren Park and The Residences at The Williams­burg are de­signed to showcase the area’s advantages. A rooftop residential unit will overlook the Manhattan skyline and the residences are directly across the street from McCarren Park.

“The rooftop has almost an uninterrupted 270-degree skyline of New York City,” KSK Construction Group Prin­cipal Selim Akyuz points out. “A lot of Williamsburg is really growing fast, and a lot of restaurants and bars are being opened. There’s a lot of demand from people to have really good high-end units in this area because of the proximity to Manhattan.” The Williamsburg neighborhood is one stop on the subway from Manhattan and five to six minutes from Union Square.

The $43 million project consists of 57 residential units in two six-story buildings and 64 hotel rooms in a seven-story structure, as well as 120 parking spaces in the basement under the residences.

One of the residence buildings measures 45,000 square feet and opened in March. The other measures 20,000 square feet and opened in April. A courtyard separates the two residences from the 35,000-square-foot hotel, which is scheduled to open with its rooftop restaurant in June. Construction started in late 2008.

“The courtyard has a nice-size swimming pool and is fully landscaped,” Akyuz notes. The residences will have membership access to the pool. “It off­ers a lot of seating areas to give the feeling of sitting in nature,” he continues.

Smart Units

Each unit features smart home technology and high-end finishes and amenities such as heated bathroom floors. Heating, cooling, lighting and draperies can be controlled remotely in the home or even from a cell phone anywhere.

“We have to be different than the competition because Williamsburg is really a fast-growing section of New York City,” Akyuz emphasizes. “It is becoming like Soho in a way. So we are geared really to address the needs of mostly young people. But now they start calling Williams­burg the ‘toddler town,’ so families have to move in. In the future, you will see more than two- and three-bedroom units, more schools and more infrastructure will be built. The infrastructure to support that has to be in place, such as big shopping centers and malls.”

The hotel is a poured-in-place concrete structure, and the two other residence buildings are steel with light gauge prefabricated wall and floor framing systems. Everything else was finished in place. All three buildings have concrete floors over metal decks and spread footing foundations with one level of basement. Their façades are curtain wall with metal panels. The hotel is being developed and managed by Graves Hos­pit­ality Corp. in partnership with KSK Con­struction Group.

Fountains Under Glass

Energy-efficient features of the buildings include windows that exceed the city’s thermal efficiency requirements and buildings that are well-insulated. The appliances are Energy Star-rated and the light fixtures are low-voltage. Low-flow plumbing fixtures and dual flush toilets are used.

The hotel’s restaurant has a 22-foot ceiling and its lobby overlooks the rest­aurant and the courtyard in five places. “We have two water fountains that flow underneath the glass flooring,” Akyuz points out. Gene Kaufman of PC De­velop­ment was the architect on the project. The Hotel Williamsburg at McCarren Park and Residences is a project of KM Construction and Develop­ment, which is in the same group of companies as KSK Construction. KSK is acting as the construction manager and worked with 13 subs on the Hotel Williamsburg and residences project.

KSK Construction – which currently is constructing two hotels in Manhattan – builds projects in New York’s five boroughs. “There’s a lot to do in New York City,” Akyuz insists. “Sometimes we don’t need to go beyond that, considering that New York City needs 20,000 new units every year. We really are looking for innovations and upgraded architecture. We try to really adapt the building to meet the local area requirements and the architecture.”