This is a potential game-changer:

On behalf of Council Member Stephen Levin, I want to thank the Borough President for giving me the opportunity to testify today on CPC’s proposal for the Domino Sugar site. Council Member Levin would like to express his full support for Community Board One’s recent recommendation of Disapproval with Modifications for this project. [emphasis added]

The Community Board expressed profound concerns over the project’s overwhelming height and density and the effect that this would have on the surrounding community and the current infrastructure. Specifically, the Board cited the strain that the project would bring to the already inadequate transit options for the area, the strain on local traffic and CPC’s requests for the maximum allowed on-site parking.

The overall reduction in the ratio of open space per resident in the area and the unmitigated shadow effects of the northernmost towers on Grand Ferry Park were also cited by the Board as grounds for disapproval. For these reasons and others, the Council Member supports the Board’s recommendation. The project is simply too big. CPC’s plan would introduce over 6,000 new residents to the neighborhood – a nearly 25% population increase for the ½ mile area surrounding the site.

Council Member Levin does not wish to minimize CPC’s impressive commitment to 660 units of affordable housing. Affordable housing is desperately needed in this community and CPC has worked hard to recognize this need. The inclusion of community space within the project is also to be commended. Furthermore, Councilman Levin appreciates CPC’s involvement with, and respect for, the Williamsburg community throughout this process. Nonetheless, unless the issues of height and density, transportation, and open space, among others, are addressed, Council Member Levin cannot support the plan for the Domino Sugar site as currently proposed. Thank you for your time.

That was Councilmember’s Steve Levin’s testimony at last night’s Borough President’s hearing on the Domino Rezoning (as read by Levin’s legislative director, Ashley Thompson).

Photo: Brownstoner

Gothamist has some good stuff on the lease renegotiations on the Bagel Store. Long story short, landlord is doubling the rent, bagel store is leaving. But don’t bet the house on a Starbucks at this location.

The landlord’s Starbucks threat (“[The landlord] told me, okay, I’ll give you a break and only raise the rent to $14,500 a month. We can’t afford that, but he says that’s what Starbucks can pay…”) sounds a lot more like a for instance than actual threat. The Bagel Store’s lease isn’t up for another 18+ months. There are plenty of places they could move into now, why would they want to wait two years (which is how long it would take with build out and all). If Starbucks wanted a store in Williamsburg, they’d have a store in Williamsburg.

It’s also worth remembering that this is the same landlord who owns the rusting hulk across the street at Bedford and North 4th. Two years ago, he was going to put a Commerce Bank in there, but that deal fell through. He’s been happy to leave it as a rusting eyesore (though frankly, it is less of an eyesore than the bank would have been). (Speaking of vacant Backer properties, does anyone know what is happening in the old Citywide Lumber space?)

Industrial archaeology is always worth a link, and Gothamist has some photos of the interior of the Domino sugar refinery that are worth a look.

Meanwhile, at the media tour yesterday, developer CPC announced that the affordable housing in the new Domino would be permanently affordable. Good on them – that’s a significant improvement from last week when they told the community board they couldn’t make the affordable housing permanent.

Domino also defended its egregious transportation impact by pointing to… the water taxi. Yes, we’re all “anticipating increased ferry service to the area” (all the while holding our breath that the service isn’t eliminated entirely – again), but that expansion is coming at Northside Piers. So residents of the Domino project can take an 8-minute walk to Schaefer Landing or they can take an 8-minute walk to Northside piers. Either way, the water taxi doesn’t seem like meaningful mitigation for 2,500 new peak-hour subway riders a day.

Neither, for that matter, is the expanded V service to Metropolitan Avenue. Yes, this will be a major boost to the neighborhood’s transit woes in general (you heard it here first). But Domino is a good 10 to 15 minutes from Marcy Avenue (and from the Bedford L), so you still need to figure out how 2,500 peak travelers get to and from the subway every day. And how to get them up (or down) the stairs and onto the platform.

Face it, absent some cooperation from the MTA (and a very large cash donation to the same), there really is nothing that a private developer can do change an “unmitigated significant adverse transit impact”.

The latest issue of WG News + Arts has a great new interview feature, and they start out with three stalwarts of the North Brooklyn community – Miss Heather of newyorkshitty.com, the Councilperson from the 34th District, Diana Reyna, and her counterpart from the 33rd District, Steve Levin.

Definitely worth a read – great interviews and great photos to go with.

Crepe Myrtle

Sheridan Playground

One evening a couple of months ago I was walking down North Third Street between Berry and Wythe and thought to myself that this one block really embodied what everyone (the city, the community, the politicians, the planners) envisioned when the waterfront rezoning went through in 2005. Here you can find a vibrant and diverse collection retail stores that create a real eyes-on-the-street vibe, new residential construction and rehabbed loft buildings. The north side of the block is lined with old loft buildings, rehabbed for residential use. The south side has a well-designed new condo set amidst single-story industrial buildings. There are a host of local retailers, anchored at the corners by bars and restaurants (the Levee, Radegast, Relish and Zebulon (OK, the latter is technically not on North Third, but it counts)). There are small retail establishments (books, second-hand furniture, clothing, books, jewelry, a gallery and even gourmet chocolate), a large retail establishment (Lumber City) and even offices (Vamos Architects).

I meant to chronicle the block back then, and it’s been on my mind to do so ever since, but WG New + Arts has beat me to it. It’s worth a read, and a walk down the block.

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).

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.

A correction to my post of the other day. The Domino public hearing at Community Board #1 will be held in February, not next week. The most likely date is 9 February, the date of the February board meeting. Stay tuned for further information.

(The delay to February is a quirk of scheduling – because the certification by City Planning came so close to the date of the January board meeting, there was not enough time to put it on the agenda and give public notice of the hearing.)

Proposed Domino development, view south from the water side.

It’s been a long time coming, but the Domino Sugar Refinery rezoning is finally upon us. The Draft EIS has been completed, and City Planning is expected to certify the application today, allowing it to enter the public review.

As before, the project promises a lot of affordable housing (660 units) in return for a hell of a lot of market-rate housing (2,200 units), a lot of open space (four acres), and a heap of parking (acres 1,900 spaces), scads of retail space (125,000 square feet) and even more community facility space (150,000 square feet). The project also still includes a 14-story tower on the Wythe Avenue end of the upland block and a zoning envelope that is substantially larger than anything approved during the 2005 waterfront rezoning or since.

The biggest change since the preliminary presentations is that the project has now added some 50 stories (100,000 square feet, distributed among five or so towers) of commercial office space to the Grand Street end of the development.

If all goes according to schedule, the public review will kick off with a presentation to Community Board #1 next week, followed by CB1’s land use committee review in early February. The full board could vote as early as 9 February, and then it is on to the Borough President.

More eye candy after the jump.

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