Sugary Land Deal: Domino Sugar Plant Purchased

The Domino Sugar Plant in Williamsburg has been bought. The NY Times reports that developers have not disclosed what the plant will be, but notes that one of the partners, Isaac Katan, is a "Brooklyn developer who has helped gentrify Fourth Avenue in Park Slope", while the other partner, C.P.C. Resources, has experience in rehabilitation of older apartments. The article also notes that when the plant stopped sugar production (but remained open) last August, City Planning department had wanted to keep the plant for manufacturing, but things might have changed. Gothamist knows this much: The views from the plant would be really spectacular, whether residential or a commercial property...it would be cool to put a museum there, the way the Tate Modern, DIA Beacon and Mass MoCA are in old plants. But that doesn't do much to ensure blue collar jobs, so we'll be curious to see how planning officials and developers address the issue.

The City Planning department has very ambitious plans to develop the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront, which can be seen at their site, Greenpoint-Williamsburg Land Use and Waterfront Plan.

Gothamist on the closing of the Domino sugar plant.

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By Jen Chung in News on July 1, 2004 8:51 AM

Comments [rss]

catherine

On Tuesday, June 27, Community Board 1 will be holding a joint meeting of the ULURP (NYC's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) and Waterfront Committees.

It's important that members and supporters of Waterfront Preservation Alliance come out to support the preservation of the historic buildings at the Domino site. Currently, the site is slated for residential redevelopment, but no commitment has been made to preserve and incorporate the historic buildings at the site into a residential development.

WPA believes that there is ample opportunity at Domino for preservation and new development that meets the community's goals for open space and affordable housing as well.

It's very important to have lots of residents and supporters at the meeting. If you can't attend please send a letter with your comments to

Community Board 1 at the address below. Feel free to pass this email along to other fans of the buildings.

The meeting is at the CB1 offices, 435 Graham Avenue (corner of Frost), 6:30pm.

astralgirl01

I agree with the idea of turning the factory into a museum/gallery space a la the Tate in London... cool space!

Real New Yorker

I remember when no none would go into Williamsburg unless it was to buy a dime bag. The place is still ugly and depressing. Luxury apartments in an industrial area covered with rats and litter. I think I'll pass.

SP

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had fanatasies about living in the top 2 or 3 floors of the factory that are encased in floor to ceiling windows. how cool would that be. it sucks that it will actually happen though, because if I or my friends cant have it, no one should.

SP

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had fanatasies about living in the top 2 or 3 floors of the factory that are encased in floor to ceiling windows. how cool would that be. it sucks that it will actually happen though, because if I or my friends cant have it, no one should.

Randy

The Domino factory has one major residential advantage aside from view - it already has the skeleton for the bitchinest waterslide of any NYC loft building!

Jen W

Paul, 4th Ave. itself isn't too gentrified (it's too high on driving and low on foot traffic for 5th Ave. type development, which is/feels more "local" and browse-y ), but the blocks between 4th and 5th have gotten lots nicer in the past few years as the boundaries of the Slope have shifted.

sam

Dude, it's called a trackback, and the only purpose it serves is to let Gothamist know when they've been quoted in another blog - if Gothamist didn't want them, it wouldn't allow them.

I just hope that when the building is inevitably converted into apartments, that the general facade of the building is kept.

Dirk

I'm just curious if Gothamist finds it annoying when people post comments that merely link to their own blog...

tien

sucks that they are even talks about developemnt for that factory. it's so cool looking. obviously, that's not good enough a reason to keep it though. "so this guy on gothamist said that the building was cool. let's keep it the way it is and turn it into an attraction!"