Five Developers Bid for Public Place Site
Some of the city’s biggest firms are looking to redevelop the contaminated Public Place site in Gowanus, according to an article in the Brooklyn Eagle. The Related Companies, Two Trees Management, Strategic Development with Avalon Bay Communities, the Hudson Companies with Fifth Avenue Committee, and the World-Wide Group all responded to the city’s RFP for…
Some of the city’s biggest firms are looking to redevelop the contaminated Public Place site in Gowanus, according to an article in the Brooklyn Eagle. The Related Companies, Two Trees Management, Strategic Development with Avalon Bay Communities, the Hudson Companies with Fifth Avenue Committee, and the World-Wide Group all responded to the city’s RFP for the six-acre site off of Smith Street last month. The proposals include 500 to 1,000 units of housing, around 50 percent of which will be affordable. The Public Place is Related’s first attempt at building in Brooklyn, and one of the firm’s associates says redeveloping the site of a former manufactured gas plant would be no more complicated than any other real estate development project in this city. How long do you think it’ll be until something’s actually built here?
Five Developers Vie for Gowanus’ Contaminated Public Place [Brooklyn Eagle]
ISO Private Developer for Public Place [Brownstoner]
Hey Polemicist, I’m with 12:29/2:01
The song and dance for public place is affordable and senior house. Do you think there should be two standards for residents like those paying market rate can send their kids to 58 and those living in affordable will make do with 32? My kids attended elementary school with kids who live in Gowanus and Wycoff and are certainly no worse for wear. As a matter of fact they better for it. And it didn’t hurt their ability to attend stellar middle and high schools.
To suggest that new schools aren’t needed is naive.
Dear Polemicist,
Wow. And you call yourself a real estate consultant… But then maybe that’s the problem.
Brooklyn has a far more industrial history than almost any part of Brooklyn. This is a Brownfield the likes of which are almost unparalleled even by Manhattan standards. Of course it can be dealt with but where is if informed plan that makes nearby residents aware of what is about to happen in their lives?
The school district is ps 58. One of the best in Brooklyn. Surely a real estate consultant you wouldn’t be saying that the addition of 1500 units wouldn’t impact the local school system… Or would you?
And the subway… If you like peeling lead paint and delaminating asbestos panels then Smith and Ninth is for you… But clearly you don’t know the hood so I wouldn’t guess you would heve been there.
The Canal is not a Sewer. The overflow from the local sewer system into the canal is well documented. Tons of raw sewage are forced into the canal during rains. Being the real estate expert you claim to be, certainly you can see that the same people who will be buying those expensive condos don’t want to be living on a river of shit.
GET A CLUE AND A NEW GIG.
Love,
12:29
There IS regular flooding in the area during/after heavy rains, especially at the corner of Smith/9th St, which is all too often nearly knee-deep.
My god the alarmism here is comical.
1) They can cap the ground with 20 feet of concrete and build a tower on top of it. Containing environmental contamination is not a big deal. Many parts of Manhattan that were once industrial have been reclaimed as residential. It is not a huge deal.
2) 12:29 post is crazy. No one who buys in such a development is going to put their kids in the same school as kids from the Wycoff and Gowanus Houses. As well, the majority of condo buyers don’t have kids (there is reason you don’t see many 3-bedroom apartments in new developments). I have no idea what to make of the toxic subway station nonsense.
Parking for at least 50% of the units will be required by zoning. What more of a plan can anyone possibly want?
And the final, most crazy comment – the flooding of the sewer system. Hello, there is a canal right nearby! Unless there is a tsunami, flooding is not going to be an issue.
You would have to be an idiot to live on that parcel.
And what the city doesn’t want you to know — When they give away this publicly held land and change the zoning for this development it will also allow the developer to cash in by developing the adjacent warehouse site you can see in the picture creating more than 1500 units with no real improvements to the infrastructure. Potentially doubling the demand on an already stressed school. Forcing more traffic to a Dilapidated and toxic subway station… Overburdening an already maxed out and frequently flooding sewer system… And aggravating an already problematic traffic and parking situation. True to form the city is Developing without a plan. You can thank Bill deBlasio for loosing his voice on this one.
if you are thinking of the industrial business zone, 12:06, that is limited to the west side of the canal south of Huntington St. and on the east side of the canal south of 3rd Street. but city planning has signaled that a good portion of both sides of the canal, outisde of the industrial business zone, will remain manufacturing even after the rezoning.
I thought the city’s recent plans for South Brooklyn had this section of the Gowanus continued to be zoned Industrial?
After watching Erin Brokovich I would not knowingly live on a toxic site no matter how much they claim it is safe to do so. That being said, I damn sure will not be patronizing Whole Foods either.