Vinegar Hill

And brother makes two…Another residential building has risen on York Street in Vinegar Hill across the street from the Farragut Houses. The 16-unit, seven-story building looks just about done. We haven’t been able to track down any listings yet but we would be willing to bet that this will be a rental.
Development Watch: 185 York Street [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
Development Watch: 185 York Street [Brownstoner] DOB

They’re not stained glass, but windows have started to go in on the backside of 109 Gold Street, the seven-story residential development going in on the site of the former St. George’s Church in Vinegar Hill. Still unknown: What renters will be willing to pay to live directly across from the Farragut Houses.
Development Watch: 109 Gold Street [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: Glacial Pace at 109 Gold [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 109 Gold Street Revisited [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 109 Gold Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
The Destruction of St. George’s Church Continues Apace [Brownstoner] P*Shark
St. George’s Demo Halted, But the Damage Is Done [Brownstoner] DOB

The newish townhouses on Evans Street in Vinegar Hill are perfectly nice to look at in a traditional way, but they don’t have a lot of sex appeal, that’s for sure. The owner of 17 Evans Street, the one directly across from the entrance to the Commandant’s House, is taking matters into his own hands with a full-on renovation that is completely changing the facade material and window layout while tacking on a roof addition. The rendering is taken from the project architect, TKA Studio, which is located nearby in Dumbo. It’ll definitely disturb the unity of block of identical houses, but they’re hardly historic and the new house is bound to be a lot swankier on the inside. We’re very interested to see how it ends up looking when the netting is finally removed. GMAP P*Shark DOB

We’re not sure how big a deal this is, or if it’s any deal at all, but it was news to us and the reader who sent it in sure was steamed about it so we thought we’d throw it out there. After several years of submitting proposals (and pushing back on suggestions from the State that it construct a cogeneration plant), Con Ed finally gained approval from the New York Public Service Commission last December to build a new steam generating plant on a 1.14-acre site it owns on Marshall Street between Hudson and Gold Streets in Vinegar Hill; the company has a total footprint along the waterfront of 13 acres. Here’s a description from the Environmental Assessment Form: “Con Edison’s preliminary design concept for the project is to replicate the current steam generating capacity of the existing four low pressure (LP) boilers (Nos. 71, 72, 81 and 82) at the Hudson Avenue Generating Station with four new package boilers with a combined net steam send out of up to approximately 1,600,000 lb/hr. The existing LP boilers will be retired in place after the installation of the new boilers. There is no associated electric power generation under the proposed action.” From the plans, it looks like the new boilers would be housed inside a new 24,192-square-foot building (schematic on the jump) on the 1.14-acre site; the four boilers would use over 5 million gallons of water a day. In terms of zoning use and size, the project appears to be as-of-right under M3-1. Based on a Hearing document from the State Public Services Commission, the City had concerns about the costs of the project and wanted to explore proposals from other “merchant developers,” but that the State agreed with Con Ed that the process, which had been going on since 2006, had taken long enough and that Con Ed should get the go-ahead. The State also accepted Con Ed’s arguments that cogeneration would be more expensive than the boiler option. We’re in over our head on this one already, but here’s how our tipster felt when he learned the news:

It troubles me in a number of ways, but I am also burned because if you read the hearing decision it states that the community was notified of Con-Ed’s desire to replace the Hudson Avenue Generating Station, etc. and no one from the community came forward to put in any objections. What!? I live in this community and I never read/heard of this proposal. I found out about this only because I was bored and decided do some internet trolling. So what happens now?

Is anyone familiar enough with how these things work or the cogeneration issue to comment?

Update: We’ve embedded both documents on the jump. (more…)

The seven-story building at 185 York Street in Vinegar Hill is well on its way now but the big question remains to be answered: Can a market-rate project make it right across from public housing?
Development Watch: 185 York Street [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark DOB

When we checked in with the progress at 109 Gold Street in July, things were moving slowly at the former site of St. George’s Church. In the last couple of months, though, the pace has picked up considerably and they’re up to the sixth of seven floors now. Still to early to tell where this will fall on the aesthetic spectrum.
Development Watch: Glacial Pace at 109 Gold [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 109 Gold Street Revisited [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 109 Gold Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
The Destruction of St. George’s Church Continues Apace [Brownstoner] P*Shark
St. George’s Demo Halted, But the Damage Is Done [Brownstoner] DOB