Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

Upcoming: Public Place Meeting Tonight

February 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment

There’s a meeting on “What’s Going on at Public Place?” tonight in Carroll Gardens. The city is in the process of selecting a developer for the big project on one of the city’s most toxic parcels slated for development. The development could include 1,000 or more units of housing and buildings 10-12 stories tall. The session will take place at 6:30 PM in the auditorium at PS 32, which is located at 317 Hoyt (between Union & President Streets). It is being billed as “an informational update by representatives for the City on the developer selection process and the next steps for planning the site.” Earlier reports said that the field of developers had been narrowed from five to two and that they would be revealed at a community meeting in late February. Here’s a bit from the email we got from Community Board 6:

From February through May 2007, Brooklyn Community Board 6 and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) hosted a series of public visioning sessions on how the “Public Place” brownfield site at the southeast corner of Smith and 5th Streets could be redeveloped. In July 2007 the City of New York officially issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) which began the formal search for a developer to work with the City and community on planning and redeveloping the site. Responses were due in October 2007. The City is currently in the process of selecting a finalist from the proposals received. At this meeting we expect to hear a report from HPD on the types of responses they received to the RFP, where the City is in the decision-making process, and what the next steps in the process are.

Should be interesting.

Tags: Carroll Gardens · Gowanus

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Anonymous // Feb 25, 2008 at 6:16 am

    12 stories and 1,000 units? The City is selling the site for $.01/sf as cleanup costs will far exceed the revenue generted from the sale.

    Why not increase the buildings to 18-22 stories, which is much more economical, and may provide a surplus? I hear the schools near Gowanus are overcrowded so potentially, the extra height could include a new school amenity?

    The City lacks any imagination – this is one site where height works! The subway is enough of a barrier to the Carroll Gardens Brownstones and the neighbohood (SoFo) South of Fourth has tall buildings already.