By: Ed McGuire
Big things are said to be coming to Williamsburg, including a waterfront park and as many as one thousand brand new apartments.
Last week, Two Trees Management unveiled what is has been working on in the wake of its $150 million 2018 acquisition of a one-time Con Ed industrial site in North Brooklyn.
The public-review process is now underway.
According to the master plan, which was fashioned by Bjarke Ingels Group and James Corner Field Operations, “250 of the 1,000 apartments will be offered at below-market rents, meeting obligations of the city’s inclusionary housing law. The development also would add a 47,000-square-foot YMCA, 30,000 square feet of retail space and 57,000 square feet of office space,” reported Crain’s New York Business.
“The focal point of Two Trees’ public announcement was the redesigned public waterfront,” it reported. “The project would create 3 acres of park space along the East River, along with 3 acres of protected water access points. The effort is focused on improving the property’s resiliency by absorbing rising water. Renderings show a circular pier that connects to a park and beach space. The developers are promising a “first-of-its-kind protected public beach and in-water areas for New Yorkers to enjoy an array of aquatic activities.” That could include kayaking, fishing and potentially swimming down the road.”
“We put a world-class team here together … and really challenged ourselves to build another park with the impact and significance and social benefits as Domino Park,” Jed Walentas, principal of Two Trees Management, said last week. “We really thought that this site was an opportunity to change the way that New Yorkers interacted with the river and the water.”
“We wanted to make a park that really changed the way that New Yorkers interacted with the river,” Jed Walentas, a principal of Two Trees, told fastcompany.com recently.
The design, the web site said, is “part of a development project that will include two apartment towers, with 250 units of affordable housing and 750 market-rate apartments. But a large portion of the land will turn into public space, and some of the riverfront will be excavated so it can fill with water to help reduce flooding. “I don’t know of really any other development projects that actually give up land to allow water,” says Lisa Switkin, a landscape architect at James Corner Field Operations, which is partnering on the project along with Bjarke Ingels Group.”
