Tag: open space

77 Commercial Street Sells

04/13/2012 | Comment

According to the Real Deal, Manhattan-based Chetrit Group has purchased the 95,000 sf warehouse at 77 Commercial Street in Greenpoint. The property is one of the northernmost waterfront parcels that were rezoned to residential in the 2005 rezoning, and the potential development on the site could in a big, bigger or biggest development scenario.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. What is the market for housing at this location, and how much of a market is there? First off, the site is, in the words of the broker on the deal, “‘not the most centrally located’ site in Brooklyn”. This site is basically at the very end of Manhattan Avenue, a long walk from either the bus, subway or ferry. The property does have 220 feet or so of water frontage, and will have great views and (hopefully) a beautiful city park next door. But – that water frontage is all along the mouth of Newtown Creek; a lot of those views are of Queens (and eventually more towers across the creek in Hunters Point South); and, the City has yet to acquire the adjacent property for a park, let alone fund clean up and capital costs. (It’s also worth asking when the developer plans to building – they’ve completed one project in the area, at 175 Kent, but have at least one other large development site, at Union and Metropolitan, that they’ve been sitting on for a few years now.)

The second question is how big will the developer go here? The base zoning – as with all the waterfront parcels rezoned in 2005 – is relatively low, but there is a sizable floor area incentive under inclusionary zoning for a developer to add 20% affordable housing (without any public review). Beyond that, though, there are also a ton of air rights available from the adjacent parcel at 65 Commercial Street (300,000 sf, according to the Real Deal). Those air rights come with strings attached – in addition to a full ULURP review, the purchasers are supposed to build an additional 200 units of affordable housing (15% of the new affordable housing committed to by the city). And the rights are supposed generate at least $12 million (in 2005 dollars) to create a $2 million “Greenpoint Williamsburg Tenant Legal Fund” as well as provide $10 million to help offset costs associated with creating inclusionary housing on other waterfront properties.

Which raises a third question (largely related to the first one), is there even a market for these air rights? Either with this developer, or the developer of the other adjacent parcel at 37 Commercial.

Domino is Not For Sale

CPC Resources tells the Brooklyn Paper that they are not selling out, just looking for a “reputable developer” experienced in waterfront development and affordable housing to partner with on the project. Which is to say, they want to sell part of the project. CPCR also acknowledged that they are working to renegotiate a $120 million loan – the same loan they apparently defaulted on in late 2011.

Meanwhile, the developer has officially pushed back the start date for phase one of the project to a very squishy “end of 2013”. That puts it a full two years behind the original schedule, and a year and half behind the most recent party line.

Sweet Movie

Aaron Short interviews the makers of the Domino Effect, a (still) topical documentary about the New Domino approval process. I’ve seen the picture in preview, and it is very well done and quite powerful.

Domino for Sale

03/12/2012 | Comment

In news that should surprise no one (but is surprising nonetheless), the Observer reports that the Domino site is on the block. Apparently, the Katan Group and their development partner CPC Resources have been shopping all or part of it to potential buyers.

A spokesman for CPCR told the Observer:

We are pursuing various options that will achieve our goals: to realize value for ourselves and our partners, and to insure that development is consistent with all project entitlements

Chief among the entitlements CPCR received (and of primary value to them, their partner and any potential buyers) was approval from the City to redevelop the site for as many as 2,400 housing units. In exchange, CPCR promised to build 660 units of affordable housing, a lot of open space and a public school, all (nicely) designed by architects Rafael Viñoly and Beyer Blinder Belle. Most of this of these benefits were not guaranteed – something that was a very big issue for people opposed to the project back in 2010.

Hopefully we were wrong.

A Garden is Soon to Grow in Greenpoint

The Java Street Collaborative is planning a community garden on a vacant city-owned property on Java between West and Franklin. The catch is that this is HPD-owned property, which is already planned for a small affordable housing development: “We just want to see what we could do with it until that time,” said Stella Goodall of the Collaborative.

You can read more about the Collaborative here.

North Brooklynites Demand Promised Parks

The Where’s Our Park coalition held a rally this past weekend to protest the lack of progress on the City’s promise to to bring more parks to the neighborhood.

‘Every community deserves access to open space — and North Brooklyn is no exception,’ said state Sen. Daniel Squadron. ‘It’s time for the city to fulfill its promise and make Bushwick Inlet Park a reality.’

Where’s Our Park?

The “Where’s Our Park?” protest event, organized by a handful of North Brooklyn community groups, was timed to coincide with the city-sponsored “It’s My Park Day” on Saturday, where more than 5,000 volunteers engaged in parks improvement projects citywide.

Instead, parks advocates marched from the N. Ninth Street soccer fields — the first and only working recreational field at Bushwick Inlet — up Kent Avenue to Quay Street, the site of a long-delayed museum.

Good quotes, too.