Brooklyn’s $3 billion tech boom getting boost with “Tech Triangle” balloon project

Brooklyn’s $3 billion tech boom getting boost with “Tech Triangle” balloon project - NYPOST.com

Brooklyn’s tech boom will get another boost with a slick “Tech Triangle” development project that includes a massive helium observation balloon overlooking it all.

The $3 billion ambitious plan — which covers the area from DUMBO, to the Downtown hub to and the Brooklyn Navy Yard — is slated to be unveiled today, officials said.

“Some things we will undertake immediately, and some, like the streetscapes and public spaces, will be longer-term,” said Tucker Reed, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

Renderings for the project call for a network of green, parklike spaces and pedestrian and bike paths.

Plans also include a topiary arbor, a Cadman Plaza cafe and a curved footbridge leading to Borough Hall.

Along Water and Sand streets beneath the Manhattan Bridge, planners envision a seasonal pop-up structure fantasy land of mini-golf, performance stages, lounges and wading pools.

There are several initiatives to revitalize unused or abandoned spaces, including the city’s first vertical dog run — replete with slopes and ramps — in DUMBO, and planted terraces, picnic tables and ping pong tables on a dead end street near the Brooklyn Bridge. And floating 600 feet above it all, near Brooklyn Landing, is a proposed tethered helium observation balloon called Brooklyn Rising — symbolizing the area’s revitalization. Riders would have “unprecedented views” of the city and harbor, according to the plans.

Officials hope the changes will continue to lure tech firms to the borough, where tech revenue is estimated to hit nearly $6 billion by 2015.

“This is really a comprehensive plan to guide the area’s growth over the next decade,” said Tucker Reed, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. Some of the projects already have funding; other will require partnerships with city government and the private sector.

Also on the wish list is the reopening of the anchorage to the Brooklyn Bridge, which has been closed since the 9/11 attack, which could house a revenue-producing waterfront museum and event space.

Under the blueprint, an open, parklike Columbus Park and Cadman Plaza “could have “the elegance of a Parisian promenade,” planners predicted.