First, there was a suggestion to put retail in a re-opened Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue between Smith Street and Boerum Place. Now, Dumbo developer Jed Walentas is proposing knocking down the closed 760-bed Big House and replacing it with a luxury building and a new jail, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Meanwhile, the Department of Corrections is still sorting through proposals for the prime property (Boro Pres. Marty Markowitz wants to develop the property for more than inmates) and looking into plans to reopen the House of D (as a jail), with retail at street level. (The excellent photo of the Atlantic Avenue slam comes from Funtime Ben’s flickr photostream.)

The interest in jailhouse conversions (of the condo kind) is chronicled in a New Yorker column, which offers helpful pointers on how best to convert a jail into luxury housing. (Tip Three: Remove any fixtures that say “penal institution.”) New Yorker also offers this advice, since some lockups are still lockups: “Keep an eye out for prisons with potential, even if they haven’t been vacated. The Bayview Correctional Facility, on West Twentieth Street, for instance, has a rooftop garden, and, on a clear day, residents can see the Statue of Liberty. The Lincoln Correctional Facility, on 110th Street, has an exercise area on the roof with a panoramic view of Central Park.”

Views? Did they say, views?