Latest news with #BrooklynDevelopment
New York Times
09-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Can a Spate of New Builds Finally Revitalize Gowanus?
The Gowanus Canal still smells of sulfur on hot days, and in some places the water can take on a sickly, grayish hue. But that isn't stopping a wave of developers from erecting glossy new apartment buildings along the notorious Brooklyn waterway. Throughout Gowanus, residential buildings have risen since the start of the pandemic. There's a dual-tower apartment complex on Degraw Street, a 360-unit rental building on Carroll Street right against the canal and, on Third Avenue, the first of four new rental buildings planned by a developer. The neighborhood, which is ringed by the tonier neighborhoods of Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill and Park Slope, offers a prime location in Brooklyn with easy access to other parts of the borough and Manhattan. But the canal's status as a Superfund site, an Environmental Protection Agency designation for toxic areas needing cleanup, had long precluded any major development. Instead, over the past two decades, events like Gowanus Open Studios, where artists welcome the public to their work spaces, and the proliferation of high-ceiling lofts inhabited by creatives, bolstered the area's reputation as a bootstrapping arts hub. But a plan to rezone the industrial neighborhood to allow for residential and commercial development is rapidly transforming the area, which is increasingly becoming a magnet for growing families seeking a quieter neighborhood with outdoor amenities. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
23-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Local Opposition Threatens Massive Redevelopment on Brooklyn Waterfront
Towering new residences overlooking New York Harbor. Restaurants, shops and 28 acres of fresh parks and open spaces. Thousands of affordable homes. All this surrounding a rebuilt cruise terminal and container port in a development project many times larger than Hudson Yards in Manhattan. This sprawling reimagining of a mile-long stretch of the Brooklyn coastline is the current proposal on the table from New York City officials, who want to create a bustling new neighborhood out of a gritty, industrial zone. Supporters call the project a rare moment to build 6,000 new homes — 40 percent of them affordable housing units — amid the city's housing crisis and upgrade a small, deteriorating port at the same time. But the proposal has met a wall of resistance from locals and the area's elected officials, whose opposition is threatening one of the largest neighborhood rezoning plans in the city this century. The project, they say, has been needlessly rushed and rewards developers who have long sought to build there. 'I don't think we landed on a plan that works for our community,' said Alexa Avilés, a City Council member in Brooklyn whose district includes part of the project area. 'We landed on a plan that works for developers.' New developments in New York often face intense backlash, pitting the city's need for new housing against residents' concerns over traffic, noise and neighborhood character. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
High-Demand Section of Brooklyn Will Be Redesigned, Adding 4,600 Homes
The New York City Council on Wednesday approved a major plan to open 21 blocks in central Brooklyn to new development, a transformation that aims to address the city's worsening housing crisis by making way for some 4,600 new apartments. The plan targets a part of Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant where decades-old city regulations have become an emblem of New York City's challenges in building new housing. Areas zoned for manufacturing as far back as 1961 left little room for residential development as neighborhood needs shifted, leaving the area pockmarked by vacant lots, warehouses and auto shops that could not be repurposed as housing. Because the neighborhoods are close to Prospect Park and many subway lines, they've continued to draw residents, pushing rents up and fueling gentrification. Several one-off, luxury apartment buildings have sprouted in between industrial and manufacturing lots, a haphazard upheaval that has angered local leaders. The City Council's approval addresses several of the issues, and reflects how city officials are, at least in piecemeal fashion, making way for growth in the face of a housing shortage that is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of homes. 'There's definitely been a culture shift in the last couple of years around housing,' said Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, who represents much of the area and who helped lead the plan's development. 'I think people understand a little bit better the reality of market pressures, and the housing and affordability crisis that is crunching everyday New Yorkers.' She said she hoped the plan, known as the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, would be a blueprint for other neighborhoods. Roughly 1,000 of the 4,600 new homes will be made affordable to people of lower incomes. They will rent, on average, for $1,747 for a one-bedroom apartment or $2,097 for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the most recent city figures. In addition, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development plans to help build 900 more units that will be even more affordable on sites owned by nonprofit groups and by the city and state. And while housing is an important focus, civic leaders have long been clamoring for the city to make broader neighborhood improvements. City officials said they would spend $135 million to redesign Atlantic Avenue, including improving visibility at intersections and adding a bike lane. The city aims to spend another $100 million on improvements to schoolyards, playgrounds and parks. And it will invest in job training programs for local residents. These additions were crucial to winning community support, Ms. Hudson said. 'You have to actually make people's living conditions better,' she said. Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement on Wednesday that the plan's approval was a 'major milestone in our mission to build a more affordable, vibrant New York City.' The Adams administration has pushed development citywide. Last year, city officials passed a broader development plan known as City of Yes, which would make way for 80,000 additional homes over the next decade. The administration is separately moving to rezone parts of Midtown, Long Island City and Jamaica, Queens.
