The August topping out of 89 Dekalb, the 30-story, 324-unit residential and academic tower on the Long Island University (LIU) campus in Downtown Brooklyn, was a symbol of continuing development both by the university and in the neighborhood. But even more significantly, as the first all-electric tower from developer RXR, it’s also a path for future building in New York City and elsewhere.
Situated at the intersection of Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn, 89 Dekalb is one of RXR’s most sustainable projects, featuring green design elements such as a fully electric power system, air source heat pumps and a smart glass façade. The project, designed by Perkins Eastman, is expected to welcome its first residents in Fall 2025.
“RXR has always looked for ways to improve our building and our efficiency. When you build in very dense areas, you need to think about that,” observed Rebecca D’Eloia, executive vice president, project executive for development at RXR. “We find it invigorating to find new and better ways to build.”
89 Dekalb will provide both affordable and market-rate housing along with state-of-the-art amenities and academic spaces for LIU. Consisting of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, the residential area includes 98 units designated for middle-income households under the now-expired 421A program and offers nearly 15,000 square feet of interior and exterior amenity space.
Residents will enjoy 24-hour concierge service, co-working areas, a resident lounge, screening room, library, private dining room, indoor and covered outdoor fitness center and a spacious outdoor terrace.
The building in facts marks the second phase of RXR’s collaboration with LIU, a direct result of the resurgence of Downtown Brooklyn and the university’s long-standing embrace of the rest of its neighborhood.
Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus was founded in 1926, when the New York Board of Regents granted LIU a provisional charter. In recent years, the University, which had previously modestly expanded its buildings in a constrained 11-acre campus over decades, had undertaken a strategic analysis of its facilities and programs to grow its academic mission and accommodate more than 15,000 graduate and undergraduate students (as of 2022).
The revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn had begun in 2004, when the city, seeing that the neighborhood had been struggling for decades, approved zoning changes that encouraged the creation of new residential, commercial, cultural and academic space. Since then, according to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the district has seen more than 32 million square feet of new development. Construction spending has produced over $34 billion worth of economic impacts to the local economy, over 114,000 direct and indirect jobs and over $1.2 billion in fiscal impacts to New York City, the partnership reports.
“The university had been seeking ways to monetize the air rights above its buildings as the neighborhood changed around them, since the physical campus was planned as many institutions were in the 1960s and 1970s — as a campus turned inward,” D’Eloia said. “Around 2016, following the successes of the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning, they sought a private development partnership with someone who understood the needs of the university and its students.”
Through relationships and a development process, the university and RXR came together and created a campus-wide master plan.
In its first phase, in 2021 RXR completed The Willoughby, a 476-unit, 34-story tower nearby that also features academic and office spaces for the university, 25,000 square feet of programming area and a rooftop athletic field for soccer and softball above a 564-space garage.
The luxury building, which includes 143 middle-income units similar to 89 DeKalb, was also designed by Perkins Eastman. It offers Manhattan-style amenities, including a huge rooftop terrace. The building’s floor-to-ceiling glass windows give the structure its sleek and striking appearance, while optimizing views in every direction.
89 Dekalb had to offer something more, and New York City’s passage of legislation in December 2021 requiring new construction to be all-electric starting in 2024 was the last push to do so.
“It was coming into law as we were beginning the design process,” D’Eloia recalled. “We just decided that we would do it, building into a market where the residents want to know how their impact affects the city.”
Demand for housing in Downtown Brooklyn has remained strong, even during and after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The only challenge for 89 Dekalb was a smaller site — and thus, a smaller building — because of local zoning. But that became a visual advantage, she continued.
“The design has a lovely wedding cake effect that steps back off Dekalb,” she said. “But that means we have a significant number of units with beautiful outdoor terraces looking over Dekalb Ave. and toward the east.”
There’s much to see.
“The amount of construction that’s going on at this moment including our project and a handful of others within eyeshot probably totals 1,500 to 1,700 units,” she reports.
Technology, then, became a key to efficiency and comfort as a competitive advantage. And its all-electric operation is not the only aspect of 89 Dekalb’s advances.
“One of the most interesting things about the building is that all the heating and cooling are provided by highly efficient packaged units from Europe,” D’Eloia said. “We’ll be one of the first projects in the city to utilize them.”
In addition, the building’s entire envelope will incorporate View Smart Windows that will automatically adjust tint to provide residents with optimal natural light, thermal comfort and unobstructed views.
“This will reduce heat gain. It’s all controlled from the resident’s app. It can be programmed to their habits and needs,” D’Eloia said, adding that RXR is working with View on its Hamilton Green development in White Plains. “We still do put window treatments in the bedrooms, but the windows can darken to the point where there’s no vision through it.”
Energy isn’t the only consideration. Studies show that View’s windows reduce eyestrain and headaches by over 50%, improve sleep by 30 minutes per night, and boost cognitive function by over 40%, the manufacturer said.
Another challenge is the 11-acre site, requiring clever design and logistics from general contractor LRC Construction.
“It’s definitely tight — you get to know your neighbors really well,” D’Eloia said. “With the site, we have maintenance and protection of traffic, getting pedestrians around the construction site safely. We walk pedestrians through our front lobby rather than the street because Dekalb Avenue is so narrow.”
Design and technology will also help to preserve separation between the residents and the 55,000 square feet of academic facilities for LIU faculty and students located in the basement, a portion of the ground level and the second floor. Largely to be used by the University’s pharmacy school, the 89 Dekalb space will include large classrooms. In addition, RXR was asked to incorporate an accelerator space for small businesses that can give students access to private companies that are pioneering technologies and therapies.
The University will have street presence on Dekalb for part of its program, but the main entrance to the pharmacy school will be on the campus side of the building.
“The flows of traffic are separated,” she said. “The students are protected from the residents and vice versa. We have columns supporting a tower up above, so we needed to shoehorn in a clear span and a 225-person lecture hall and have them be oblivious to the 325 residential units above. That’s an engineering feat in itself.”
Yet RXR also continues to focus on people, and 89 DeKalb will advance that principle, as well. Its resident’s app will provide a strong interface with all living in the building.
“We’re always thinking about how to make our buildings feel like communities, including the amenity space, how we staff the building and the programming,” she said. “We want people to choose to live here because they meet their neighbors in the elevator, to feel at home in the big city.”
