Gowanus Village Sites Back on Market; Available A La Carte

@antidope - Huh? No, it's on 3rd st. Also, it's generally known as the Bat Cave.

@fsrg - Can you explain? I'm curious. Why would there be high liability costs? Because the canal is dangerous?

Posted by: ninethreesix at October 21, 2009 11:00 AM

@antidope - Everyone in the neighborhood calls it that, as does Curbed and the rest of the local blogs/media. Because it used to have bats in it. Just letting the folks know, since the moniker you're using is a bit unwieldy. If you look at Google street view, you can see that it's accessible via that driveway off of 3rd ave (not 3rd st., my mistake).

@fsrg - Right, although according to the brownstoner articles on that topic, it doesn't seem that the contamination had anything to do with why they aborted that project. It sounds like they were mostly done with the cleanup. But of course we don't really know. But anyway, I gather that the cleanup would have to be more extensive if it were residential? Makes sense, I guess.

Posted by: ninethreesix at October 21, 2009 12:26 PM

@ Ditmas -- That's true, actually, I never saw much action there at all. But I have no idea what's involved in something like that. Anyway, the reason I'm inclined to believe it is that, from a PR perspective, why would Whole Foods lie and give people the impression that they were out of money if it was in fact the toxicity that was the problem? Wouldn't they have been perfectly happy to jump on that excuse?

Posted by: ninethreesix at October 21, 2009 12:58 PM

Yes, I guess that's true. My only point is it's not clear that the contamination was the primary reason for stopping the project. If Whole Foods didn't lie, then the reason had more to do with financing. Hence, there's no reason to think that the contamination would necessarily prevent any other development in Gowanus. Although it's obviously a deterrent and an added expense.

Posted by: ninethreesix at October 21, 2009 1:46 PM