The City Planning Commission today unanimously approved the redevelopment of the former Domino Sugar riverfront complex in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The approval requires that the developers, Community Preservation Corporation Resources and the Katan Group, revise their plans for parking and a commercial building at the site. The developers have withdrawn an application for a special permit to exceed existing parking regulations for the site.
The City Planning Commission issued its final environmental impact report on the project last week and it called for a 50-foot reduction in the height of the planned office building overlooking Grand Ferry Park to reduce its shadow over the park.
City Planning Commission chairperson Amanda Burden declared in a statement that "Changes made by the Commission to reduce the height of the northern-most commercial building will improve the relationship between that building and Grand Ferry Park," adding that "Further, provisions have been added to the project's Restrictive Declaration which will help facilitate the construction of a school in the Refinery Building, if warranted in the future."
Ms. Burden said that "The New Domino project will revitalize an 11-acre vacant and inaccessible waterfront site and adaptively reuse the recently landmarked sugar Refinery Building,"adding that "This development will, for the first time, create a significant publicly accessible open space along the quarter-mile South Williamsburg waterfront that has been closed to the surrounding community for decades."
The project will create 2,200 units of housing, including 660 affordable units, four acres of public open space, 143,000 square feet of community facility space, and office and retail space.
In April, City Councilman Steve Levin (D.-Williamsburg) called for the project's total of apartments to be reduced to 1,600 and that 40 percent of them be set aside at below-market rates, according to an article by Aaron Short in the April 28, 2010 edition of The New York Post. Mr. Levin, the article noted, "compared Domino to another waterfront development, Schaefer Landing, which has 40 percent below-market rate - but was admonished by City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden for making a comparison that was 'apples and oranges' since Schaefer was developed on city-owned property and received public subsidies to achieve those levels. 'You're a smart guy,' Burden, a strong supporter of the mayor, told Levin, 'but you should know better.'"
The building was once the world's largest sugar refinery.
The Domino site was purchased in 2004 by The Refinery LLC, a group consisting of the managing partner, CPCR, and its partner the Katan Group. CPCR is the wholly-owned for-profit development arm of the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), a nationally-recognized not-for-profit mortgage lender that helps finance and support the development of affordable multi-family housing. CPC was founded in 1974 by a group of business leaders and financial institutions to stem the tide of deterioration and abandonment threatening at-risk communities in New York City, such as Washington Heights in Manhattan and Crown Heights in Brooklyn.
Rafael Vinoly is architect for the redevelopment project and Beyer Blinder Belle are the historic preservation architects and Quennell Rothschild & Partners are the landscape architects.
The refinery complex, which consists of three buildings erected in 1882, was declared an official city landmark September 25, 2007 and the Landmark Preservation Commission approved plans June 24, 2008, for a roof-top addition and new windows for the main building, which has a tall chimney and a large "Domino Sugar" sign on its roof.
To reuse the Refinery complex, the entire interior structure and all the machinery will need to be dismantled and removed.
The approval requires that the developers, Community Preservation Corporation Resources and the Katan Group, revise their plans for parking and a commercial building at the site. The developers have withdrawn an application for a special permit to exceed existing parking regulations for the site.
The City Planning Commission issued its final environmental impact report on the project last week and it called for a 50-foot reduction in the height of the planned office building overlooking Grand Ferry Park to reduce its shadow over the park.
City Planning Commission chairperson Amanda Burden declared in a statement that "Changes made by the Commission to reduce the height of the northern-most commercial building will improve the relationship between that building and Grand Ferry Park," adding that "Further, provisions have been added to the project's Restrictive Declaration which will help facilitate the construction of a school in the Refinery Building, if warranted in the future."
Ms. Burden said that "The New Domino project will revitalize an 11-acre vacant and inaccessible waterfront site and adaptively reuse the recently landmarked sugar Refinery Building,"adding that "This development will, for the first time, create a significant publicly accessible open space along the quarter-mile South Williamsburg waterfront that has been closed to the surrounding community for decades."
The project will create 2,200 units of housing, including 660 affordable units, four acres of public open space, 143,000 square feet of community facility space, and office and retail space.
In April, City Councilman Steve Levin (D.-Williamsburg) called for the project's total of apartments to be reduced to 1,600 and that 40 percent of them be set aside at below-market rates, according to an article by Aaron Short in the April 28, 2010 edition of The New York Post. Mr. Levin, the article noted, "compared Domino to another waterfront development, Schaefer Landing, which has 40 percent below-market rate - but was admonished by City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden for making a comparison that was 'apples and oranges' since Schaefer was developed on city-owned property and received public subsidies to achieve those levels. 'You're a smart guy,' Burden, a strong supporter of the mayor, told Levin, 'but you should know better.'"
The building was once the world's largest sugar refinery.
The Domino site was purchased in 2004 by The Refinery LLC, a group consisting of the managing partner, CPCR, and its partner the Katan Group. CPCR is the wholly-owned for-profit development arm of the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), a nationally-recognized not-for-profit mortgage lender that helps finance and support the development of affordable multi-family housing. CPC was founded in 1974 by a group of business leaders and financial institutions to stem the tide of deterioration and abandonment threatening at-risk communities in New York City, such as Washington Heights in Manhattan and Crown Heights in Brooklyn.
Rafael Vinoly is architect for the redevelopment project and Beyer Blinder Belle are the historic preservation architects and Quennell Rothschild & Partners are the landscape architects.
The refinery complex, which consists of three buildings erected in 1882, was declared an official city landmark September 25, 2007 and the Landmark Preservation Commission approved plans June 24, 2008, for a roof-top addition and new windows for the main building, which has a tall chimney and a large "Domino Sugar" sign on its roof.
To reuse the Refinery complex, the entire interior structure and all the machinery will need to be dismantled and removed.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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