by

Attendees enjoy Industry City’s open-air courtyards. Photo via Mister Sunday

Sunset Park’s industrial spaces were once the victims of urban blight and a dying manufacturing sector; they served as the backdrop for the tortured souls in Hubert Selby Jr.’s 1964 novel Last Exit to Brooklyn and were defined by high crime rates and poverty.

Now, the area’s isolation and wide open interiors are making it a party mecca, attracting revelers who enjoy the solitude of such marginal locations.

by
2

MakerBot is one of the powerhouses of the Brooklyn tech and maker scene — a movement that’s bringing back DIY with a tech-friendly twist. Founded in a Dean Street workshop in 2009, the company has experienced some ups and downs. But through it all, they’ve continued manufacturing in Brooklyn.

This week, MakerBot entered a new era with the opening of a facility at Sunset Park’s Industry City (which is about to get its own $1,000,000,000 makeover). The 170,000-square-foot industrial space houses 140-plus employees assembling MakerBot desktop 3D printers.

And it’s a step forward in MakerBot’s plan for the next era in 3D printing.

by
18

Outwardly, there is not much sign of progress at 850 Metropolitan Avenue in East Williamsburg, where one of Brooklyn’s busiest developers, Boaz Gilad’s Brookland Capital, plans to convert an old condensed milk factory into condos. And indeed, a dive into the permits reveals construction has not yet started.

We have high hopes for this project, which has a very attractive rendering that shows a contrasting modern addition. The new design is actually more interesting than the existing factory and enhances it, in our opinion.

But building rules may prevent it from happening. After closing on the property in July of last year for $9,350,000, the developer filed an application for alteration permit in December, intending to add a fourth story and 34 apartments. The permit has not yet been issued, and zoning approval (or disapproval) is pending, DOB records reveal.

by

Time Inc. is moving to Brooklyn! Well, some of them are. And their dogs.

According to an internal memo that Keith Kelly of The New York Post got his hands on, Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp plans to send the company’s technology, production and engineering (TP&E) department to spacious new offices in Industry City, the so-called “SoHo of Sunset Park.”  Also heading there will be a new “editorial innovation” team under former Entertainment Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Bean.

by
2

5.22.15 (8:00PM) Enjoy your weekend

A photo posted by @dominosugarfactory on

We’ve been following the Instagram account of Dominosugarfactory, an “eternal time lapse” of the iconic Williamsburg building, now part of the massive Two Trees redevelopment project. Later additions to the 1880s factory, technically three buildings located at 292-314 Kent Avenue, have been stripped away, and it will become office space.

So far, there are 196 photos here, some taken by day, some by night — all from the exact same location. The photos go back to January 2013 and show the complex as it looked before demolition started in October 2013, through demolition, and today.

Domino Sugar Factory Eternal Time Lapse [Dominosugarfactory]
Domino Coverage [Brownstoner]
First rendering by SHoP; second rendering by Beyer Blinder Belle

4.1.15 (7:03AM)

A photo posted by @dominosugarfactory on

by
14

Industry City’s $1 billion plan to rezone and remake the Sunset Park waterfront area into a thriving destination for retail, Brooklyn “makers” and hotels is already encountering deep and powerful opposition. The community board, local elected officials from City Council to the U.S. House of Representatives, and community groups say they want heavy industry with its high-paying jobs, according to stories in Crain’s and The Wall Street Journal. (And just to be clear, no one is asking for housing.) Community group Uprose is planning a rally Sunday.

In Sunset Park, Doubts About Development Plan [WSJ]
Two Pols May Block $1 Billion Hipster Industrial Complex [Crain’s]
Industry City Coverage [Brownstoner]
Rendering from Industry City via Crain’s

by
4

To undertake a $1,000,000,000 redevelopment that is supposed to deliver 20,000 jobs, Sunset Park waterfront industrial complex Industry City will need a rezoning to allow parking and a hotel, as well as $115,000,000 from the city to finance infrastructure improvements, execs said at a press conference Monday. Industry City also released tons of renderings of what the 32-acre area would look like after a remake, published in Crain’s. What do you think of the plan?

$1 Billion Mega-Project Will Be Major Test for de Blasio [Crain’s]
Renderings from Industry City via Crain’s