Plans for a 23-story office tower in Williamsburg were under examination this week as City Planning Commission officials questioned during a public hearing whether introducing even more offices into an already beleaguered market is the best use of a prime waterfront parcel currently zoned for manufacturing.
A limited liability company called 500 Kent purchased the site at 500 Kent Ave. from Con Edison for $50 million in 2019, city records show. The energy company operated power plants there until shuttering them in 1999; they were demolished a decade later.
In 2014, under the supervision of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Con Ed remediated the land, which is bounded by Division Avenue to its north, Wallabout Channel to its west and the edge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard to its south.
Crain’s reported in 2016 that the city would not rezone the area to allow for condo development, and Mayor Eric Adams — then Brooklyn borough president — said at the time that “this site is going to stay industrial.”
The owner of the property, which reportedly includes a partnership with developer Hampshire Properties, together with the United Jewish Organization — led by Rabbi David Niederman as its executive director — want to rezone the nearly 2.7-acre site, now partially vacant and a parking lot for school buses, to allow for commercial and retail use and are proposing to build a tower with about 555,000 square feet of office space and roughly 20,700 square feet of retail, along with about 23,000 square feet of public waterfront access. The co-applicants are also seeking a special permit to facilitate the construction of a 234-spot public parking garage, according to the city filing.
Some members of the City Planning Commission appear to be dubious of the proposed transformation.
“This does not contemplate any manufacturing — this is not a resource we’re going to get back. We have seen that office space has not been occupied in this area, including along the waterfront and further up, in the way that one anticipated pre-Covid,” Commissioner Gail Benjamin said during the public hearing on the application Wednesday.
The applicant, meanwhile, is so far unwavering in its plans.
“Our client still believes there is a market for this,” said Raymond Levin of Manhattan-based law firm Herrick, Feinstein LLP during the hearing, referencing recent leases signed in Two Trees’ Domino Park, which is nearby, and in Dumbo. “We’re several years away from the project being built.”
Community Board 2 voted in favor of the application in March. But Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso recommended last month that the city reject the proposal, saying in his memo that “this development pattern has foreclosed any future for manufacturing jobs along Brooklyn’s former working waterfront.”
The Department of City Planning has not yet set a date for a vote on the project, but it will likely be in the next month or two.
This story has been updated to reflect that the property at 500 Kent Ave. is owned by a limited liability company of the same name, not the United Jewish Organization, which is a co-applicant on the project.
Julianne Cuba , 2024-05-16 19:07:04
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