Dumbo NYC

After a year and a half of review process by the City Planning Commission, the rezoning of a 10 block area of Dumbo (primarily East of the Manhattan Bridge) roughly bound by Bridge St, John St, Front St, and Adams Streets was passed by the City Council yesterday evening with a vote of 46-1 (The lone vote was opposed by Councilman Tony Avella). The approved rezoning boundaries allow buildings to be built up to 12 stories tall along Jay Street, with street level fronts rising to 6-8 stories. Buildings along Bridge Street could rise to 8 stories, with 4-6 stories at street level. Included are blocks containing 10, 20, 68 Jay and 155 Water Street zoned M1-4/R8A.

In April, the Community Board 2 rejected the Department of City Planning’s proposal by a vote of 13-10. The Community Board is only advisory, and the Borough President Markowitz proposed a rezoning recommendation (PDF).

We spoke with representatives from DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance, who supported Markowitz’ proposal, and were disappointed with the outcome. (Read DNA’s testimony (PDF) and proposed plan (PDF)).

The opposition to the rezoning argued that a Dumbo rezoning will allow building owners to convert buildings from commercial to residential that would lead to a loss of jobs to the area. In response to this, the Dumbo Improvement District made the following case to the Community Board 2:

20 Jay:
20 Jay is home to over 100 of DUMBO’s commercial businesses, over 500 workers, with retail at its base. Recently, Two Trees, its owner, invested over $5 M in the building’s upgrade. Two Tree’s principal, Jed Walentas has submitted a letter to the land use committee of CB2 stating that Two Trees has “…no plans to convert 20 Jay Street for residential use nor is the building even convertible. It features 40,000 sq. ft. floorplates and the building is 200 feet deep, which means that it is appropriate solely for commercial uses.” This building will continue to flourish as a home to the creative businesses the Dumbo Improvement District is proud to support.

68 Jay and 155 Water:
68 Jay houses roughly 500 workers in over 300 businesses. By its mere shape and large floorplates, 68 is not a conversion candidate – it is too large and too square to be converted. Pearl Realty, its owner, has confirmed this. Pearl is also on record discussing the success of their most recent commercial project, Green Desk, which according to their testimony at the CB2 public hearing offers “start up business affordable works space in an environmentally friendly venue. The project [located at 155 Water] has already filled up its space with more than 100 new businesses and brought more than 200 jobs to DUMBO.”

We spoke with one building owner who wished to remain anonymous to get their take:

“The way I see it, DUMBO is split between the side north of the Manhattan Bridge and the side south of the bridge. South of the bridge almost all of the buildings are over 8 stories with a good mix of commercial & residential & no empty lots. North of the bridge there is a mix of residential & commercial, but a good number of empty lots & shells of buildings that might as well be empty lots.

I don’t see how making the buildings on the north side a few more stories will dramatically hurt the neighborhood considering the success of the south side… and if its going to take a rezoning for the large real estate holders (ie Guttman) to finally build something in these lots or finish gutted buildings then i guess we don’t really have a choice…
we may loose a few artists, but i believe the market will work out a middle ground between commercial & residential use & we should see a more vibrant north side in a few years, once the lots are filled in…

While the newly rezoned area of Dumbo may change the 10 block area, it remains to be seen what the impact will be to small businesses, retail, commercial and residential.

{City Planning Commission Report (PDF) 01Jul2009}
{Department of City Planning: Dumbo Rezoning}
{Dumbo Rezoning Being Considered, 27Feb2008}
{Dumbo Rezoning Proposal on the Table, 19Feb2009}
{City Planning Presents Dumbo Rezoning Proposal, 04Mar2009}
{Dumbo Rezoning Public Hearing, 18Mar2009}
{Dumbo Rezoning Plan Hearing Results, 20Mar2009}
{Dumbo Rezoning Rejected by CB2, 08Apr2009}