497 Carroll Street (PDS Development Corporation)
While New York City’s manufacturing sector has been written off by some, tales of its death would still be an exaggeration. While still in decline, the sector employs 70,000 New Yorkers with good-paying jobs, a number that has held relatively steady over recent years. While the biggest threats to the industry remain the escalating cost of doing business in the city and high land values, certain light manufacturing companies have been able to thrive, especially in the industrially-zoned pockets near trendy neighborhoods.
As COVID-19 ravages the city's short-term economic future, a silver lining of the expected downturn is stable/less expensive real estate values that may allow manufacturing companies to remian in the city and start ups to thrive. A recent, overly-pessimistic opinion piece published by Bloomberg predicts that due to the virus, there will be a younger, cheaper, and poorer New Yorker where subway ridership will remain lower and esidents will look more to their neighborhoods for work and retail.
As COVID-19 ravages the city's short-term economic future, a silver lining of the expected downturn is stable/less expensive real estate values that may allow manufacturing companies to remian in the city and start ups to thrive. A recent, overly-pessimistic opinion piece published by Bloomberg predicts that due to the virus, there will be a younger, cheaper, and poorer New Yorker where subway ridership will remain lower and esidents will look more to their neighborhoods for work and retail.
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Over in soon-to-be-rezoned Gowanus, within its sprawling and protected Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Business Zone, an 8-story manufacturing building has teaken shape at 501 Carroll Street. Designed and developed by PDS Development Corporation's David and Peter Sweeny, the building will provide 32,000 square feet of new space for "boutique manufacturing" companies. Peter Sweeney told DNAinfo in 2017 that the building will most likely be used by “small-scale makers” similar to that of 505 Carroll/540 President which includes the Textile Arts Center, artists' studios and co-working spaces. A visit to the construction site in February 2020 shows the structureis topped out and is awaiting its exterior envelope and interior fit-out.
497 Carroll Street as of February 2020
Approved zoning diagram via NYC DOB
Similarly, several blocks north, at the edge of the manufacturing zone, Abra Construction is building an eclectically-programmed manufacturing building at 148 3rd Street with spaces reserved for jewelry manufacturing, sail making, and woodworking, glass, textile and ceramic production.
Flanked by Park Slope, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens, Gowanus’ prime location creates intense encroachment pressures by hotel and storage uses. While residential uses are not permitted, the city is looking to rezone portions of the area to allow for some housing. Advocates of the industrial zone want the city to ensure that any changes would benefit the existing manufacturers and maintain as much manufacturing space as possible.
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