Let The Dominoes Fall
Developers yesterday unveiled their vision of The New Domino, a redevelopment plan for the area surrounding the now-defunct Domino Sugar Factory on the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. The $1.3 billion project would include a [40-foot-wide public waterfront esplanade] stretching from South Fifth Street to Grand Ferry Park, a new water taxi pier and several new apartment towers with a total of 2,200 housing units, about 30 percent of which would be designated for below-market rental rates.
Michael Lappin, president of Community Preservation Corporation Resources (CPC, the sites developer), said the 11.2-acre site would also offer 120,000 square-feet of retail space, creating an estimated 550 new jobs. He said the factorys landmark [central refinery would be preserved], but that builders would in effect scoop out the insides of the building. No other preservations are planned, but Lappin did say that they are looking into the possibility of saving the factorys iconic sign. This is a balance of old and new to preserve the past and grace the future, Lappin said of the plan.
Even community groups seemed pleased with the initial proposal. CPC really has demonstrated a keen sensitivity that I havent found often in people who are only interested in market development, the founder of the community group El Puente, Luis Garden Acosta, told the The Sun. It is the last, best hope for affordable housing in our community. But, of course, [not everyone is happy]: The density is outrageous, it is just adding to the gentrification of the area and there is no way the infrastructure is going to be able to accommodate all these new people, Stephanie Eisenberg, who lives across from a building where a Save Domino has been erected, (pictured) told the Post. Developers hope to break ground by 2008.
Photo courtesy of [Doug Letterman on Flickr]