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January 23, 2007

Affordable Housing in Pfizer Site's Future?

factory
Pharma giant Pfizer announced yesterday that it would be shuttering the Flushing Avenue plant where the company commenced operations 156 years ago towards the end of next year. Along with concern about the closing's impact on the location's 600 workers came speculation about its real estate implications. In addition to the 660,000-square-foot plant betwen Marcy and Tompkins, the company own another 15 acres of land nearby, including the site of the charter school it launched recently. The availablity of a site this size provides Mayor Bloomberg with a rare opportunity to achieve his affordable housing goals. The area would have to be rezoned for residential, but the Mayor said yesterday that he planned to pursue that course of action. As for Pfizer? "We will look for a solution in keeping with the surrounding neighborhoods," a spokesman said. What would you like to see done with the site?
Shutting Doors Where a Drug-Making Giant Began [NY Times]
Pfizer to Axe Brooklyn Plant [NY Post]
Pfizer Job Cuts May Mean Loss Of Tax Breaks [NY Sun]
Photo by hi-lo

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Comments

Mixed use please. No people warehousing.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 9:35 AM

"said that he wanted to turn use the location to create affordable house."

Writer, put down the pharmaceuticals.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 9:37 AM

I agree with the first poster; mixed use would be ideal.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 9:38 AM

So would the loft conversions be marketed as The Drug Factory?

Posted by: Scott T. at January 23, 2007 9:55 AM

how about the ZoLofts?

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 10:06 AM

Let's see...convert each floor of the plant to affordable $3 mil. lofts. Then, build a huge gate around the lofts to keep the plebeians and "undesirable element" out. Oh, and the ground floor should be converted to a Starbucks. Just a suggestion.

Posted by: anon at January 23, 2007 10:10 AM

Mixed use with middle and low income cooperative housing!

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 10:25 AM

this area is a bit of a bombed-out wasteland. it will take a special project indeed to unite and harmonize the marcy houses & the window grate-crazy hasids.

Posted by: ross at January 23, 2007 10:34 AM

This area should be rezoned to residential with an affordable housing quotient. That way, organic development will happen and there will be market-rate and affordable units.

Realistically, the city will probably negotiate a sweetheart deal for a "favored" developer and the whole project will be subsidized by taxpayer dollars.

Posted by: Shahn Andersen at January 23, 2007 10:48 AM

How about as the site of the New Police Academy? Plenty of parking, would help get more police on the streets of Brooklyn, and would serve as a catalyst for bringing businesses to an area that is pretty underserved.

Posted by: Oh Lord! at January 23, 2007 11:10 AM

LOL 10:06

Posted by: anonymous at January 23, 2007 11:13 AM

ZoLofts. Priceless.

Posted by: brownstoner at January 23, 2007 11:34 AM

No! Not mixed use, not housing, none of that. Look beyond your only little obsession for just one minute.

The site should be made available to one of the city's universities. Pfizer could probably write the whole thing off and the city could create the Pfizer Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology or whatever. Many of the people that work there now could probably find some sort of associated employment and the city would not lose a high-tech resource.

Posted by: ex-Redhooky at January 23, 2007 12:05 PM

ex-Redhooky, that is a brilliant and unique idea.

Posted by: Qfwfq at January 23, 2007 12:21 PM

When I saw that announcement on the news, my first though was how long before the building goes high priced condo?

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 12:46 PM

The loss of 600 jobs is a huge blow to local workers. Too bad Pfizer didn't see some PR value in keeping their original location functioning.

Posted by: NeoGrec at January 23, 2007 1:09 PM

Why don't we put the Nets arena there?

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 1:44 PM

more projects please

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 3:30 PM

ex-Redhooky - nice thought but . . . 1. Pfizer sucks at R&D - which is why the plant is closing, no new drugs to make there. 2. The mix of jobs required for R&D is very different than what the plant supported. I worked there for 5 years, so I'm well aware of that. Everyone at the plant saw this coming. That's why I left last June. But I really feel for the people who worked the lines. These are probably some of the last high paying manufacturing jobs in Brooklyn. Those workers are facing relocation or much lower wages. The site had such a strong sense of community. It's just so sad!

Posted by: Frank at January 23, 2007 4:25 PM

This would make a great location for a high end meth lab.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 4:36 PM

Please, no "affordable" housing. This area has met the quota for affordable housing--the Tompkins Houses, Marcy Houses, and Sumner Houses are all in the vicinity. I live a couple of blocks from this plant, and I hope the plant is converted into condos. HIGH END CONDOS. I love the "ZoLofts" name!

Posted by: The Changeling at January 23, 2007 5:46 PM

How about something like a new Westbeth? An oasis of livability for the creative community of williamsburg (the ones who actually are artists, designers, filmmakers, composers, etc.). A last chance to hold on to the very thing that has made the area so desireable to the investmant bankers, marketing execs, and assorted midwesterner-yuppies that are hell-bent on turning new york in to a culturally and economically homogenous place that makes Geneva seem fun.

Posted by: pfa at January 23, 2007 7:29 PM

pfa, that is a wonderful idea! If anyone deserves free and/or low cost housing in this neighborhood, it is the real artists, the creative class, who bring something so valuable to the places where they live. If they don't build housing for artists, then they might as well turn it into a Fairway or a Trader Joe's, because there certainly aren't any decent grocery stores 'round here. How about a Trader Joe's with housing for artists above it?

Posted by: The Changeling at January 23, 2007 9:20 PM

If I were a developer, I'd like to cut some streets into it, make a little park square in the middle, and make a deal with other individual developers to build whatever they think the market bears on the small, Brooklyn-neighborhood-sized lots I would plat on the land. The provisions would be that they must build up to the sidewalk, they must not build any parking, and they must have retail space on the ground floor. This would likely ensure a mix of condos, rentals, and even offices, and while it would be very dense the small lot sizes would prevent insanely tall highrises (not that I'm anti-highrise). I'm sure the City would foil my plans at making an organic development somewhat in the manner in which they used to be done, but it's nice to dream.

Posted by: Jeremy at January 23, 2007 10:28 PM

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

affordable housing? you mean yet ANOTHER manifestation of the failed social works project that marginalizes and ghetto-izes the poor? NO!

Posted by: suzy at January 24, 2007 12:05 AM

free and/or low cost housing should be available to everybody. and the westbeth model, notwithstanding its conceptual flaws, will probably never be repeated. a possible "reinvention" of the idea could involve the development of housing aimed at families earning less than 100k and individuals earning less than 50k with special consideration given to artists, and with no so called "market rate" units. a decent grocery store would be nice, too.

Posted by: pfa at January 24, 2007 12:34 AM

I don't think any of us were suggesting that this factory should turned into only affordable housing, ala public projects. We were suggesting that there should be some affordable housing built there along with market rate housing.

I suggested that the zoning should be changed to residential with an affordable quotient. You would have market rate and affordable housing in the same building, and it would avoid the ghettoization of one economic class that public housing projects create.

Posted by: Shahn Andersen at January 24, 2007 8:34 AM

Why does everyone confuse affordable housing with projects? I think it's universally acknowledged that packing the maximum number of lower-income families one top of one another in isolation from the rest of scoiety is not the way to go. A mix of affordable and higher-priced units would insure continuation of an integrated society. The choice shouldn't be high-end condos or projects but something in between. And, BTW, who is going to buy high-end condos in this relatively barren, isolated (G train at Flushing Ave is the only subway option) location? But I really think pfa's suggestion is the best.

Posted by: babs at January 24, 2007 1:04 PM

a Kosher Whole Foods.

Posted by: smel at January 24, 2007 3:19 PM

Affordable is a relative term. Affordable to who? People that can pay $1900/month for a 500sf apartment? They should be affordable condos for households (depending on family size) in the $25,000 to $75,000 income range. Those are the people who suffer most in New York City. It would allow some hardworking people from the surrounding area to own something. People who turn up their nose at this neighborhood & the people who live there, should stay out.

Posted by: agentonline at January 30, 2007 9:22 AM

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January 23, 2007

Affordable Housing in Pfizer Site's Future?

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