Construction of the Williamsburg Bridge, 1896-1903
A Retronaut.com tour of the construction of the Williamsburg Bridge. Worth a few minutes of your time.
Category: Noted
Douglaston to Develop Third Toll Tower
The Wall Street Journal (via Brownstoner) reports that Douglaston Development, the developer of the Edge condos, has bought a vacant tower site next door at Toll Brother’s Northside Piers development. Douglaston plans to erect a 40-story luxury rental on the site.
Both Douglaston and Toll have sites for third towers on their properties – Douglaston has used its site to host the Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg, while the Toll site has sat vacant. The deal – which has been rumored for some months now – means that Northside Piers will be completed, albeit with rentals instead of condos and Douglaston instead of Toll as the developer (FXFowle, which designed the other Northside towers, will remain as the architect for the rental tower).
What is not clear is what this means in terms of affordable (inclusionary) housing. L&M Development Partners, which built the existing affordable housing at the Palmers Dock portion of Northside Piers, is listed as a partner with Douglaston in the new development. I don’t know if Toll has already built the required 20% affordable housing for the new tower, or if L&M will be developing it for Douglaston. L&M is building a new ground-up affordable project on Broadway and Kent, so conceivably that could represent an offsite component of the required inclusionary housing.
As Brownstoner notes, this is something of a bombshell. It is a bullish move on Douglaston’s part, and an indication of the relative strength of the Williamsburg rental market (particularly on the waterfront), but at the same time, the fact that neither Toll nor Douglaston is interested in condos has to be a bearish indicator.
Tweak to the Whole Foods Williamsburg Rumor?
Brownstoner, citing an a direct but unnamed source, is reporting that the rumored Whole Foods at Kent and Metropolitan is not going to be at the Monster Island, but instead on the other side of Kent Avenue. The site in question runs along Kent from Metropolitan to North 3rd, the open lot on the corner of Metropolitan, and a one-story green shed occupying the North 3rd corner. Unlike the west side of Kent, this side of the avenue is zoned for medium-density residential and commercial, so an as-of-right development would be similar in scale to that which is just finishing up at 175 Kent.
A quick search of city records shows virtually no activity on this site in ages. The property is owned by Manhattan LLC in Manhattan (the same LLC owns the adjacent property on North 3rd Street). There have been no property transactions since 2006, and no DOB actions since 1998. The lot is used to store building materials, and seems to be operated by a Chinese company, which would square with the address of the LLC, which is on Grand Street in Chinatown.
This site does seem to have more of the amount of space that a Whole Foods would require (particularly if you include the site on North 3rd), but with no plans filed, any mixed-use development is a long, long way off. Too long, it seems to me, for a retailer to commit to – particularly when there are large (but perhaps large enough) retail spaces at both 175 and 184 Kent. The west side of Kent still makes more sense for a retailer to build ground-up. Residential is not allowed as of right on that side of the street, so commercial development could be the best play there.
For the moment, I’m putting all of this in the category of Apple store and Starbucks speculation. Maybe Whole Foods (or some other high-end grocery store) is coming to the neighborhood, and maybe they’re coming to this part of Kent Avenue. We’ll see.
And while all of this (probably idle) speculation is going on about the Kent Avenue site, there is some serious demolition happening at the Con Ed property on the west side of River Street. According to DOB, Con Ed is demolishing “three (3) retired fuel tanks”, each constructed of concrete over 20″ thick. What will replace these riverside tanks is not known (how about a waterfront esplanade?!?).
RIP
Nighthawk on ArchDaily
Nighthawk Cinema and Apartments
Caliper Studio, architects
The Nighthawk Cinema building gets a nice feature (and a lot of nice photos) on ArchDaily.
Quadraid Fills In
Quadriad’s North 3rd Street infill
Another data point for the continued growth of construction in Williamsburg – Quadriad has (rather quickly) moved forward on the infill portion of its North 3rd Street development. The Bedford Avenue piece finished some time ago, and the Berry section is about to come online. Now the in-between bit is pushing forward.
As I’ve noted before, the death of development in Williamsburg has always been over exaggerated – even in the depths of the recession, new projects continued to start up – but lately, it seems that there are fewer and fewer stalled sites, and a definite upsurge in construction.
(The retail portion of this project gets a lot of press – does anyone know people who actually live there?)
Williamsburg Charter High School on Probation
NY1 [via Brownstoner] is reporting that the Williamsburg Charter High School has been put on probation by the Department of Education “for a string of violations”, including “illicit spending” and “misallocating funds”, all of which has left the school with $4 million in debt. According to the Times’ SchoolBook site, which originally broke the story (and whose post includes the DOE probation letter in full), the school was already under investigation by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
The financial problems seem to be a combination of overspending and under enrollment. WCHS – which has been in operation for seven years – is part of the Believe High Schools Network, which also operates the Southside Charter High School and the Northside Charter High School (both of which are located in on the Ericsson J.H.S. Campus in Greenpoint). According to Gotham Schools, all three schools spent about 30% more per student than they brought in through state funding, a gap that was not covered by private fundraising. In the case of WCHS, the school needed an enrollment of 1,000 students in order to cover its $2.3 million annual rent, but was only able to enroll 850 students. Another big issue in the DOE review is the relationship between the Believe network – which received $2.34 million in management fees from WCHS last year – and the school. Half of the school’s 6-member board is employed by Believe or other schools in its network.
To compensate for the missed rent and loan payments, the school has apparently cut back on the number of teachers.
WCHS is located on Varet Street in East Williamsburg. The school’s landlord received a number of variances in order to allow the conversion of a former factory building for a school use. After the school fell behind on rent, the landlord put the property on the market for $30 million. (That price tag seems a bit steep, given that the property is zoned for manufacturing and subject to a variance [Word document] that specifically allows Williamsburg Charter to occupy the building, but requires BSA approval for any change in school operator.)
For its part, the school says that the DOE charges contain “many inaccuracies and misstatements of fact” that the school has “challenged time and time again”. WCHS doesn’t have any specific response to the DOE allegations, but promises to post “links to a series of documents that outline the concerns that the City and State have addressed us on and our responses to them. In addition, [we will post] relevant timelines and information regarding the school’s attempt to set the record of facts straight over the course of time”.
Liu Looking Into Greenpoint Shelter Plans
Things seem to be heating up over 400 McGuinness Boulevard, the loft building that keeps trying to be a homeless shelter. The Brooklyn Eagle reported last week that a “hotel developer” had acquired the property. The quotation marks are there because, while the developer does build hotels, he also builds a lot of homeless shelters – something Aaron Short of the Post reported on over a month ago.
Now, Short is reporting that City Comptroller John Liu is, at the request of Council Member Steve Levin, investigating the relation of the Department of Homeless Services with this particular developer and others. Levin’s contention is that DHS is using third-party developers to acquire properties for use as homeless shelters, a process that would allow DHS to circumvent the public review process for such property acquisitions. The developer, for its part, says that it has no “contractual relationship with DHS”. Liu’s office is promising to “hold the Department of Homeless Services accountable to a fair, transparent and equitable siting process”
[Via The Real Deal]
111 Kent for Rent
Brownstoner reports that 111 Kent Avenue, the Michael Muroff-designed condo at the prime corner of North 7th and Kent Avenue, is ramping up its sales effort as a rental. The project, which began life as a condo development, had been stalled for ages. Now it is back, as a “boutique rental residence” (boutique would be one of the last words that come to mind looking at this building).
Yet more proof that the market for rentals in former condo developments is particularly strong in North Brooklyn.
Movin’ Out
Phil DePaolo may or may not be the mayor of Williamsburg, but he has certainly been a fixture on the neighborhood activism scene. And now he’s leaving town – moving to the suburbs for better schools.
I worked with Phil on any number of issues in the neighborhood, didn’t always agree with him 100%, but was always happy to have him on my side (or to be on his side as the case may be).
I am reminded of my own parent’s experience – we moved to the suburbs in the late 60s, and within a couple of years, my parents were organizing to improve the local schools. The tag line on all the buttons was “You probably left a better school in NYC than you came to here”.
Good luck, Phil.