If you are thinking of buying at Warehouse 11, here is a new incentive to bid low. Way low.
Warehouse 11 Races Against the Clock
Saturday January 30: Williamsburg for Haiti
Tomorrow afternoon, District # 14 and Progress High School will join forces with local elected officials and community leaders to provide direct assistance to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
Come to 441 Lorimer Street (corner of Maujer Street) between 12pm and 5pm with donations for the relief effort. They will be accepting supplies for the immediate relief effort, including:
- Medical Supplies
- Children’s clothing/diapers
- New toddler clothes for ages 1 to 5
- Bottled water & children’s juice packs
- Powdered milk and health bars
- Canned goods, rice, beans, mac & cheese, instant potatoes
- Soup
- Flashlights
- Extension cords
- Gloves & dust masks
The Chrystie Street Cut
Remember my post about the V train coming to Williamsburg? Old news, it turns out – as linked above, Second Avenue Sagas had full post on it two weeks ago. As I surmised, the switch from the BMT to the IND is west of the Delancey/Essex station, but what I didn’t know is that the transfer has a name – the Chrystie Street Cut.
Clearly I don’t read enough blogs.
TGE Loses Latest Appeal
TGE’s dream – denied (again)
TransGas Energy System’s latest legal gambit has fallen flat. In a terse decision [pdf], the New York State Court of Appeals has denied TGE’s motion to appeal a prior appellate court ruling.
This all goes back to TGE’s 2002 acquisition of rights to the Bayside Fuel Oil site at North 12th Street and Kent Avenue. In 2004, the New York State Board on Electric Generating Siting and Environment voted to deny TGE’s application to build an above-ground power plant on the site. In May, 2005, the City rezoned the site for parkland. In March, 2008, the siting board rejected a revised TGE plan for an underground plant on the same site, and in September, 2009, the Appellate Court upheld that siting board decision. And now, the Court of Appeals has refused to hear TGE’s appeal (“motion for leave to appeal denied”).
If you are keeping score at home, that’s community 4, TGE 0. (Actually it’s worse than that – TGE has had a series of smaller rejections over that time.)
Despite the fact that this has gone completely under the radar, this is very big news for Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The City can now move ahead with condemnation proceedings to acquire the property. And the City might be able to afford it too – with no viable power plant use (and massive environmental remediation needed), the value of the property is considerably less.
In other words, we are one step closer to a park on the Bushwick Inlet. (And from what I understand, TGE’s option on the Bayside site expires in a couple of months, so maybe this time TGE’s plan is not only merely dead but really most sincerely dead.)
Artists, Artworks Sought for Public Plazas in Brooklyn
The city is looking for artists to design new public artworks for public plazas citywide, including three local sites: Knickerbocker Plaza in Bushwick; Humboldt Plaza in East Williamsburg; and Myrtle Avenue Plaza in Clinton Hill.
M.T.A. Plan Would Spare Some Routes and Cut Others
Is Williamsburg about to get expanded subway service??
Maybe, according to the Times:
The V train, which now ends at Second Avenue and Houston Street, would replace the M train and travel east to Metropolitan Avenue in Queens.
And the MTA confirms it in their latest description of the proposed service cuts [warning – links to very large PDF]:
Subway Reductions/Discontinuations Being Considered for the First Time: …Extending V to Metropolitan Avenue to replace M service north of Essex Street and discontinuing M service south of Essex Street. V no longer stops at 2nd Avenue.
If this happens, the V would provide direct service on the Broadway elevated line from Bushwick and Williamsburg to Soho, Greenwich Village and Midtown. Without having to switch trains at Essex/Delancey. (I believe the elimination of the Second Avenue stop is because the switch from the BMT (brown) tracks to the IND (orange) tracks is located west of Essex Street – the train will actually be picking up the tracks that the B and D run on up to Broadway/Lafayette.)
On top of which, the latest austerity plan by the MTA no longer eliminates the Z train. (The proposed cuts still include the elimination of the B39 bus across the Williamsburg Bridge, but this route is truly redundant.)
Community Group Pushing for Greenpoint Hospital
The RFP for the Greenpoint Hospital redevelopment project has been out for close to three years now – that HPD hasn’t awarded it to anyone yet is a crime. Remember, this site is one of the (many) publicly-owned sites that was supposed to supplement the developer-provided affordable housing on the waterfront. Cook Street aside, has any new affordable housing been constructed on City-owned sites since May, 2007?
Warehouse 11 Party
The Real Deal reports that Warehouse 11 (aka the Roebling Oil Field) had a grand opening party tonight. This follows on a near foreclosure and a major price slashing to reintroduce the project.
Aptsandlofts.com announced a grand opening party for Warehouse-11, a Greenpoint condominium located at 214 North 11th Street. The development, which had faced possible foreclosure in May last year, is now offering units with prices starting at $310,000. The grand opening party will kick off tonight at 5 pm.
And clearly aptsandlofts did not get the memo that we are all Williamsburg now (or perhaps this is a nascent trend to mislabel parts of Williamsburg as Greenpoint).
Greenpoint Owner Charged with Dumping Sewage
Ick.
[via Laura]
Broadway Triangle Regeneration Plan
Yes, it was only just approved by the City Council, but it appears that changes are coming for Broadway Triangle:
Under the plan the Broadway Triangle will become a huge retail development, including offices and apartments.