Tag: industry

More on the Sweater Factory Lofts

12/05/2012 | Comment

I linked briefly to the New York Times article on the ongoing Sweater Factory saga. Herewith, some more thoughts:

“It’s not crime and disinvestment that’s the enemy of the working-class jobs here anymore,” said Leah Archibald, the director of the East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation, a nonprofit entity that administers the Industrial Business Zone. “It’s gentrification that’s become the enemy.”

Leah is absolutely right, but what did we expect when the city carved out the Bushwick Inlet industrial zone in 2005? This small enclave of manufacturing is surrounded by new residential zones targeted for luxury housing, so is it really surprising to anyone that manufacturing is not really viable there? Despite calls from many in the community to provide better industrial retention policies, more truly mixed-use zoning and lower densities, this was simply not a priority for City Planning or the loudest voices on the community side. So now this 17-block area now sits isolated and vulnerable amid a sea of new housing. I had a lengthy interview with the Times reporter about the Sweater Factory (alas, no quote!), and made this very point to her. With residential uses unavailable (legally, at least), the highest and best use in this tiny triangle has shifted to bars, bowling alleys and hotels. All as-of-right, but uses that necessarily erode the viability of manufacturing.

When the City set up the Industrial Business Zones in 2005, they made a commitment to slow the flow of variances and rezonings in M zones. That approach has largely worked in East Williamsburg, where there is enough critical mass and enough distance from residential districts (though all bets are off when Bloomberg leaves office). Yes, there are plenty of loft conversions there, but percentage-wise, manufacturing remains the dominant use. Not so in Bushwick Inlet, where the gentrification is not the Sweater Factory lofts but the host of new as-of-right uses that command rents many times higher than manufacturing. About the only bright lining in this area is the rise of tech jobs.

“We take all this stuff very seriously. That’s why we’ve been out there numerous times,” said Ryan FitzGibbon, a department spokeswoman. If the owners of 239 Banker continued to flout the law, she said, it would be possible to take them to court. But with the application pending, she said, “The agency will work with the loft board on this situation to try to legalize the conditions.”

While the DOB tries to defend its embarrassing lack of enforcement, the fact is that they may have been out there numerous times, but they never did much to actually enforce their stop work orders. The DOB has been the prime enabler in this saga, and hiding behind the loft law (which I understand probably doesn’t even apply at this property), is insane.

Albest Site Marketed for $27 Million

The former Albest Metal Stamping building at 9 Kent Avenue is being marketed as a potential hotel or office building – but notably not for any sort of “industrial” use. It is becoming very clear that the industrial-retention part of the 2005 rezoning – which included reserving a big area around Bushwick Inlet for traditional manufacturing use – was a big missed opportunity. Given the transformation of industry in Brooklyn over the past decade, the opportunity for a new kind of mixed-use zoning – lighter impact industry below with residential above (something the city refused to consider at Bushwick Inlet or anywhere else) could be a big promoter of local jobs.

Instead, we are manufacturing hotels, bars and bowling alleys.

Study of Retail Workers Finds $9.50 Median Pay

$9.50 an hour median pay for what for most is part-time or temp work, with only 3 in 10 receiving health benefits.

These are the jobs that are created as better paying jobs with better benefits get squeezed out on the industrial side.

And no, the living wage bill working its way through the Council won’t do anything to make this better.

Bike Lane Plan on Greenpoint Avenue Bridge

01/04/2012 | Comment

The City is promising to install bike lanes on the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge – upsetting some but cheering others:

“Greenpoint Avenue is not fun to ride on,” said Ryan Kuonen, a community organizer at north Brooklyn’s Neighbors Allied for Good Growth and an avid cyclist [and also a Community Board member]. “It really needs a redesign.”

Avid business owners along Greenpoint Avenue (who stand lose parking) are opposed to the project. Unnamed avid motorists are also opposed to the project. No word on how avid pedestrians view it.

What IS Con Ed Up To On River Street?

12/30/2011 | Comment

con-ed-demo.jpg

Con Ed’s River Street site, partially demolished
Photo: Sharese Ann Frederick on flickr


I’ve mentioned this in passing before, but Con Ed is doing some serious demolition at its River Street facilities. The two-block site used to house a series of storage tanks, but over the past few months, the tanks have been slowly coming down. (The speed of the demo is probably due to the fact that the tanks are constructed of concrete 20″ thick; there is no evidence of any environmental remediation at the site that I can find.)

So what’s in store for this site? Could it be the site of the recently-rumored Williamsburg Whole Foods (I’m betting not)? Some other development (I’ve heard rumors that CineMagic’s Riverfront Studios is expanding somewhere “within a few blocks” of their Kent Avenue/South 9th Street studios, though I doubt this is that site)? Or is Con Ed just going to mothball it like they have their other waterfront site, the former BRT Power Plant at Division and Kent?

The options are somewhat limited by zoning, which is heavy industrial (M3-1), which limits the as-of-right options to industrial uses and certain commercial uses. (The six-block area between North 3rd and Grand Street west of Kent Avenue is actually ripe for rezoning – the industrial zoning on five of the six blocks is completely anachronistic since the residential rezoning of the Domino properties to the south in 2010.)

Or perhaps Con Ed will do something truly useful for the community and turn the site over for a waterfront park and esplanade? It would make a fantastic extension of the esplanade at 184 Kent to the north, wouldn’t it?

Midnight Lick Leases Space in Williamsburg

This is an interesting development – Kalmon Dolgin/Midnight Lick is converting a number of buildings in industrial locations for creative-arts businesses. Yet another example of viable (and job-creating) uses for former manufacturing buildings that don’t involve condos, clubs or hotels. Encouraging.

Brooklyn Brewery WAREHOUSE Sold

11/29/2011 | Comment

Regarding the earlier confusion (mine and others) as to exactly which part of the Brooklyn Brewery recently sold, I received the following from the Brewery’s PR:

BROOKLYN (29 Nov 2011)—Recent reports have misleadingly indicated that The Brooklyn Brewery building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has been sold. The Brooklyn Brewery operations are housed in two locations: one at 79 North 11th Street in which the brewery, tasting room and corporate office are situated; and another across the street at 118 North 11th Street, the ground floor of which is occupied by our warehouse. It is only the building holding our warehouse that has been sold – our lease at this location does not expire until 2025. The notion that The Brooklyn Brewery is in danger of losing its home is erroneous.

Brooklyn Brewery’s Home Fetches $16M

A five-building complex on North 11th Street, which include the current home of Brooklyn Brewery, has sold for $16 million. The new owner plans to convert the buildings to residential use. Fear not, though – the brewery has a lease through 2025.

(Crain’s says that these buildings were originally built to house a Dr. Brown’s soda factory, but the buildings that house the brewery (and the Brooklyn Bowl) were built between 1886 and 1907 as part of the Hecla Irons Works. The other portion of the development site was once part of the N.Y. Quinine and Chemical Works.)

Oops – wrong side of the street. The properties that sold are not where Brooklyn has its brewery and tours, but the warehouse on Berry. The site is the eastern half of the block fronting Berry, between North 10th and North 11th Streets. Four of the buildings were built by Hecla Iron Works (including the building that housed its offices and showrooms on North 11th (1896-97, Niels Pouslon, architect), which is a city landmark); the fifth building, 56-60 Berry, is a three-story reinforced-concrete bottling plant built by the Carl H. Schultz Corp., a manufacturer of mineral water (1928-29, Francisco & Jacobus, architects). Schultz had acquired the entire property in 1928 for use as manufacturing and bottling. In 1929, Schultz merged with Schoneberger & Noble (manufacturer of Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda) and the Brownie Corporation (manufacturer of a chocolate soda) to form the American Beverage Co. So the site did manufacture Dr. Brown’s soda, but it wasn’t built as such. (The origins of Dr. Brown’s turn out to be very murky – I have a research team on it.)