A Different Vision for the Gowanus Whole Foods Site
With a decision looming from the Board of Standards and Appeals’ on the variance Whole Foods Market applied for to build a store larger than zoning allows at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue, neighborhood think tank the Gowanus Institute released an “alternative development plan” for the site. The blog Gowanus Your Face Off dissected the…
With a decision looming from the Board of Standards and Appeals’ on the variance Whole Foods Market applied for to build a store larger than zoning allows at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue, neighborhood think tank the Gowanus Institute released an “alternative development plan” for the site. The blog Gowanus Your Face Off dissected the plan, which calls for building a couple large new buildings that would offer “vocational training, business incubation and support services for entrepreneurs in the culinary and creative industries.” As the blog notes, the space “would be like a Foodie version of the Old Can Factory combined with the Brooklyn Creative league and the 3rd Ward.” Meanwhile, Whole Foods would get 75,000 square feet of space to have a food production space and a storefront, and the little brick landmark on 3rd Avenue would be turned into a “‘Museum of Industry’ to highlight industrial innovation.” Of course, Whole Foods Market owns the site and might not be all that keen on adopting these plans.
The Whole Foods War: Alternative Building Proposal [Gowanus Your Face Off]
Small-scale manufacturing and industry such as garment and food production is alive and well in Bushwick and LIC. Their biggest threat is losing space to residential at higher rents. There is much talk of bringing some manufacturing back to the US from China, as rising wages and transportation costs erode the savings of offshoring. They’d be likely to choose other areas first such as North Carolina.
No I am not “against” this – it just has ZERO chance of ever happening. You can look short term, or long term or medium term but there is no viable economical model for this (or financing). Its one thing to repurpose a underutilized building (like AM Can) and come up with some creative solution to fully utilize it (and hopefully make some $), its another thing to expect people to put up $100M or so on a nice idea with virtually no chance of a return.
wait? let me get this right. gowanus institute thinks whole foods will pay for all this?! bahaha
Please describe how that view works in this case?
Yeah not at all impractical to get some RE Firm to pony up probably close to 100 Million dollars for the land and the construction to build on spec,a business incubator that presumably wont be able to afford much rent, and a brand new unfunded museum plus get Whole Foods to agree to a complete change in their business model…yeah should be simple.
Great idea, you know another viable idea also might be to build a spaceport if Newt Gingrich’s Moon colony gets funding.
i agree with you on that.
if you go down third street towards smith anyone can see how dead manufacturing and industrial space is. instead of these “think tank” people messing with a vacant site, that would actually be good for everyone, they should focus their energy on some of the empty industrial buildings in the area.
i agree with you on that.
if you go down third street towards smith anyone can see how dead manufacturing and industrial space is. instead of these “think tank” people messing with a vacant site, that would actually be good for everyone, they should focus their energy on some of the empty industrial buildings in the area.