Gowanus Canal Esplanade Envisioned for Public Place

Rendering of proposed Public Place development by The Hudson Companies.

Earlier in the week, the department of Housing Preservation and Development [HPD] revealed renderings for a proposed housing development and park on 5.8 acres of heavily polluted land by the toxic Gowanus canal. Located on the site of a former manufactured gas plant, the city has owned the land, which stretches from Smith Street to the canal, for two decades. National Grid, who took over the site from KeySpan Energy, would need at least two years to decontaminate the area, called Public Place.

But as you can see from the rendering above, an urban oasis is just around the corner, where kayakers can paddle free from fear of gonorrhea. Plans by two finalists (The Hudson Companies and the Related Companies) were presented at the community meeting and both would construct over 700 units of housing, with at least 100 apartments for low-income senior citizens and over 60% of the total units made available to families earning less than 130% of the area's median income. The roughly two acres of park space would be administered by the Parks Department and Brownstoner notes that each developer will seek the environmentally-friendly LEED certification and vow to “capture and clean all storm water before it went into the canal.”

The two plans differ mostly in the amount of retail space that would be allocated and in density of the developments. And the proposals could get even more ambitious; Gowanus Lounge reports, via the Brooklyn Eagle, that the owner of a sprawling adjacent property is interested in joining forces with the development. Clothing magnate Henry Abadi is offering to demolish his warehouse and combine his four acre property with Public Place, which could push the total number of housing units above 1,000.