BHB: Secure Your Legacy, Give Away Dock Street Dumbo Site
January 14th, 2009
Wonder how Dock Street Dumbo would look in this photo? (Photo by Josh Derr)
Our friends over at Brooklyn Heights Blog opined that Two Trees should donate the land on Dock Street as part of the Brooklyn Bridge Park to convince the community that they care about “preservation” and “quality of life” because “no matter what gets built there, it’s gonna suck.” Although a proposal not yet heard, and would be a grand gesture, but why would they ever do that? We credit Two Trees for most of the development of what Dumbo is today, but it’s not like anyone would just give land away for good will. If the Walentas’ do something like that, why not build on the site that’s 10 stories and increase the number of floors dedicated to the middle school? That would seem to satisfy the preservationists, residents, and developers (provided that it made fiscal sense). We know; it’s not that easy. Does anyone have any other out-of-the-box ideas?
15 Responses to “BHB: Secure Your Legacy, Give Away Dock Street Dumbo Site”
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January 14th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
low rise building; half middle school, half museum of the history of the brooklyn bridge!
January 14th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I like twc’s suggestion, but not going to happen. Walentas has said that a lower rise building is not financially feasible, and a museum certainly won’t be a money maker. My suggestion is all retail on every side, with commercial tenants on the upper floors. Ten stories should provide profits for Two Trees. I’ve done commercial properties and based on my calculations, that may work.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
How about leaving things the way they are? Unless they’re going to put in some actual services for the residents of the neighborhood (i.e. laundromat, banking options, affordable grocery, affordable pharmacy, add your own needs here, etc)
January 14th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Here’s my out of box thinking… Directly across the street from this proposed project there’s a beautiful historic warehouse slowly deteriorating. Offer it for renovation and conversion into residential/retail/carousel house/whatever in exchange for a equivalent reduction of height/space of the Dock street building.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
tiki bar
January 14th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I think 2trees should just build a really big hotel to spite the opposition. We need a couple of swank lounges and maybe a new restaurant in the nabe anyways. By the time it’s finished the economy will be on the upswing again and it’ll be brimming with tourists. And best of all we won’t hear about this issue any more :-)
January 14th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
build and build high i say. we need the school. two trees needs to make money. there’s plenty of great view of the brooklyn bridge. get over it people.
January 14th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Just back from the meeting. The CB approved the Dock St. zoning change 30 yea, 7 nay, 1 abstention.
Congratulations to the other side. There were merits to both side of this debate. Most on both sides carried themselves very well (with the exception of the few pro-Dock St. folks who in the final week trotted out the race card. Dispicable.)
Let’s hope that the blank check that was given over to Two Trees tonight will be properly filled out and cashed. Their latest shenanigans on Atlantic Avenue gives me pause.
The motion next goes to Marty Markowitz, and onto the City Council.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:47 am
A wonderful opportunity has dropped into our laps. Now we get to build a school for generations of kids.
I’ve been touting my idea of the Emily Roebling school for the environment but perhaps in light of recent events in the financial community we should consider creating the Bernie Madoff school for ethical business practices.
See we make the school something real and get 2 trees and the city to commit to the vision before shovel hits the dirt. It’s our job to provide the vision and it’s the job of the Yasskys, and the Avellas of this world to make sure the contracts between city and developer are ironclad.
That’s the discussion that should be going on here.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:26 am
The school could be called the Mike Bloomberg School for Overdevelopment, Developer Gimmes and the Lobbying Arts.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Who’s lending Two Trees the $ for this project? Hard to believe they’ll secure financing in this climate.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
At the previous CB meeting in December, Walentas Jr., when asked that very question, frankly admitted that there was no financing currently lined up for this project.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I’m not an architect, but I can come up with a few ideas that would crate a more attractive and interesting building and lessen the impact on the Bridge. Instead of the god-awful “two rectangles stuck together” design they currently have, which looks like a giant spite fence between DUMBO and the Bridge, why not have the building height increase in graduated steps on both legs of the existing “L”? Or equally divide the space of the taller floors over both legs of the L so the height is not so close to the bridge? Perhaps if the proposal didn’t look like the monolith from 2001 stuck next to the Bridge people wouldn’t be so hostile to the project.
January 17th, 2009 at 3:02 am
financing not need at this point. First u get the approvals than u get the financing.
chicken…egg?
September 24th, 2009 at 12:01 am
How about leaving things the way they are? Unless they're going to put in some actual services for the residents of the neighborhood (i.e. laundromat, banking options, affordable grocery, affordable pharmacy, add your own needs here, etc)