Just a year after the controversial megaproject at the old Domino Sugar refinery in Williamsburg got the green light, the developers are reportedly looking to dump the property to the highest bidder. According to the Commercial Observer, the massive (unbuilt) development, dubbed the New Domino, is shovel-ready, after handily clearing a number of hurdles that had stalled construction for years. more ›

Today the City Planning Commission is holding a public hearing on a developer's plan to spend $1.2 billion transforming the vacant 11-acre Domino site in Williamsburg into a residential complex with a public waterfront esplanade and 2,200 apartments. (The project was recently rejected by the local Community Board.) Reporter Benjamin Lozovsky has been covering it closely, and his latest critical article in the Williamsburg Greenpoint News is a must-read. It's about ten billion words long, so we haven't made it all the way to the bottom yet, but so far it's the most thorough examination of the controversial project we've read. Did you know that the developer funnels money to a local Roman Catholic church, whose leader buses congregants to community meetings, giving them talking points provided by the developer? Read on... more ›

This past September, preservationists won a major victory when the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to give parts of the massive old Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg landmark status. Three of the buildings at the site will be preserved and renovated for residential use, including some affordable housing. more ›

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An armored robbery in Queens, a boat in distress east of the Steeplechase Pier in Brooklyn and a school bus accident in Staten Island. The bids are in for the West Side Yards, and the companies that submitted them are Extell Development Company, Brookfield Properties Developer LLC, The Related Companies, TS West Side Holding, LLC (A Joint Venture of Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley), and Hudson Center East LLC... more ›

The folks behind the video presenting an alternate plan for the Domino Sugar Factory site have launched a website that lays their idea out a little more clearly. The plan, as presented on dominosugar.org, is for the site to turn into a "global cultural center", regenerating the industrial site like the Tate Modern in London, which they say is "directly relevant and well documented." The website estimates that a cultural attraction at the Domino site would generate between $60-80 million a year, excluding monies generated in the surrounding area. more ›

In 2004, we believed that the Domino Sugar Factory would make for a great museum, à la the Tate Modern. Today the NY Sun reports that a group of Brooklyn artists are calling on the Community Preservation Corporation Resources development company "to change its plans for the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, pushing for the creation of a cultural complex similar to London's Tate Modern art museum." more ›

The NY Times explores the world of the urban explorer this week. The group will also accept the following labels: urban spelunker, infiltrator, hacker and guerilla urbanist...in case you were wondering. They do exactly what their name(s) imply, granting themselves an all-access pass to the city whenever they want it. more ›

It's one thing to read that developers who have the Domino Sugar Factory property in Brooklyn want to build 2,200 apartments. It's another thing to actually see renderings of what that could look like. The city's Department of Planning put a draft Scope of Work for the project online, in anticipation of public scoping meeting on July 31, 2007 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM and from 6:00 PM to 8:45 PM. more ›

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing about landmarks designation for the Domino Sugar Factory, a complex of buildings on the Brooklyn waterfront. Overall, preservationists, community members, and the developers agreed that preservation is important. The only question is how much should be preserved: While the main refinery building will almost certainly be landmarked given support, there's debate about the surrounding area. more ›

MUSIC: You know summer is just around the corner when the Seaport Music Festival has their first show of the season. Tonight Animal Collective, Danielson and XXXChange (Spank Rock) will all be on Pier 17 for a FREE show! Come, drink, listen. more ›

THEATER: Theodora Skipitares is a Greek-American playwright, director and puppeteer who uses near life-size puppets and Greek tragedies to look at our current situation in Iraq. (Her rendition of the Iliad and the Odyssey was a sold-out hit at La MaMa last year.) Her new show, which features puppetry and video, is The Exiles, an adaptation of the Orestes/Electra myth. “In this particular story of betrayal and vengeance, these puppets are an eerie construction of facade and public display, while their operators are a shadow of primal, often raw emotions and personal desires.” (Read last month's Times profile of Skipitares here.) - John Del Signore more ›

- Why someone hates the Ten Commandments on YouTube more ›