• 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?!?).

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  • The Giant Eye Is Watching You, Greenpoint

    Via Animal, Marcos Zotes’ great Nuit Blanche installation.

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  • RIP

    IMG 1407

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  • Brooklyn Has the Best Pizza in the City

    The Daily News reports that Brooklyn has taken the top spot in Zagat’s pizza ranking. The top-rated pizza in the city is Totonno’s. The top five are all outer borough – four in Brooklyn, including Roberta’s, and one on Staten Island. So if you’re looking for decent pizza in Manhattan, check out the list here and skip down to #6.

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  • McCarren is First Brooklyn Park to Get Wifi

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  • Upgrading the L Train

    The MTA has announced a series of planned upgrades for service on the L line – moves that, in the long term, at least, could ease some of the overcrowding on the line. The services changes are partially a response to a request from State Senator Dan Squadron that the the MTA review the state of service on the F and L lines, and partially a response to the fact that everyone knew service on the L line was beyond capacity. (Its not just the morning rush, either – as the Times points out, service on the L train is often 35% over capacity on Saturday afternoons.)

    Second Avenue Sagas has a nice rundown of all the changes that are planned. The only immediate change is that the MTA will add one additional train in the 9:00 to 9:30 morning rush period. Theoretically, this will lower crowding during this period from the current 101% to something in the mid-90% range (pro-tip – the cars at the back of the train are only running at 99% capacity in the morning rush (vs. 130% at the front) – pile in!) . Long term, the MTA will finally roll out its fully- automated train service (CBTC) on the L line. With the full implementation of the automated service, the MTA says it can run up to 24 trains an hour on the L line (currently, headway is limited to 17 trains an hour).

    All of this will – in the long term – help the average commute on the Canarsie line. In the short term however, expect more weekend service cuts, as the MTA continues to implement the switching necessary to get automated service fully online by late 2012. And remember that even with the potential for 24 trains an hour, the line is still only two tracks – if one train gets stuck, everyone behind still has wait for that sick passenger to get off the train. And as new residential developments all up and down the line continue to come on line (there are still about 5,000 unbuilt housing units from the 2005 rezoning alone), those additional 7 trains an hour will pretty soon be running at capacity too.

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  • Nighthawk on ArchDaily

    Nighthawk

    Nighthawk Cinema and Apartments
    Caliper Studio, architects


    The Nighthawk Cinema building gets a nice feature (and a lot of nice photos) on ArchDaily.

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  • Bike Share Preview

    NAG and City DOT are co-sponsoring a Bike Share preview tomorrow afternoon from noon to 4:00 at McCarren Park (North 12th and Bedford). You can check out the Bike Share setup, and even test ride a bike.

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  • Suicide in Park Enforces Need for Local Shelter

    The Greenpoint Gazette’s Jeff Mann nails it:

    The tragedy strengthened the calls of many Greenpointers to establish a shelter in the neighborhood to deal with its unique homeless population… Greenpoint’s indigenous homeless population consists, for the most part, of Polish speaking, chronic alcoholics. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) does not offer a solution for people who need permanent housing, alcohol counseling and a Polish speaking staff. In fact, their alcoholism often disqualifies them from housing, raising fears that the neighborhood could see more fatalities as winter approaches.

    The recent suicide in McGolrick Park cruelly emphasizes the crux of the issue over the proposed homeless shelter at 400 McGuinness Boulevard – Greenpoint has a homeless population that needs help, but the help they need would not be available at the homeless shelter that the City wants to put in the neighborhood.

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  • Economic Downturn Breeds Stalled Construction Sites

    After commenting earlier today that the number of stalled sites seemed to be dropping quickly, this article appeared in Google alerts:

    Williamsburg and Greenpoint saw a pre-recession development boom. Since 2009, approximately half of the city’s stalled sites have been located in these neighborhoods. Currently, 92 sites are inactive in the area, compared to 129 in all of Manhattan.

    I’ve always been skeptical of the City’s official count of stalled sites, both in terms of undercounting and overcounting (which means the gross number might be roughly accurate, but the actual site list probably isn’t). It would be interesting to map actual vs. perceived stalled sites and see where the discrepancies lie. Certainly there are still some big ones, like the Domsey site illustrated in the Epoch Times article, the North 4th and Bedford hulk, and the South 4th sites on and near Bedford, but often they have very atypical back stories (epic bankruptcies, construction accidents, lawsuits and the like). But a number of prominent stalled sites are back in construction or nearly so, including 111 Kent, the North 6th and Wythe site (steel is going up) and North 1st and Kent steel skeleton.

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