DUMBO Development

[BrooklynRider]

I gotta agree with you there.

[antinimby]

Two Trees tries tower — again — on Water St.



(New Plan)


By Harry Cheadle
for The Brooklyn Paper
June 30 - July 7, 2007

Developer David Walentas has proposed to add another castle to his DUMBO fiefdom: a $200-million, 400-apartment, commercial and middle school project on Water Street, between Water and Front streets — the same location where a similar Walentas proposal was defeated in 2004.

To avoid such a fate, Walentas’s Two Trees Management — the principal landlord in the booming neighborhood down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass — has set aside 80 of the units as below-market-rate housing and reconfigured the building so that it obstructs fewer views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The blocked views were one reason several community groups objected to the earlier version. The 300-student middle school is also new to the proposal.

The company needs a city rezoning from manufacturing to residential before it can build.

Anticipating controversy, Two Trees has already begun a mass-mailing campaign in DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights, sending out a glossy, full-color pamphlet asking for support — much in the style of developer Bruce Ratner, who courted support for Atlantic Yards by sending out hundreds of thousands of such pamphlets.

The Two Trees mailer includes a pre-paid postcard petition in support of the project.

The petition is addressed to Councilman David Yassky. The Brooklyn Heights Democrat, who was criticized by some groups for not opposing the 2004 project fast enough, said this week that DUMBO does need a middle school, but not another gigantic development.

He called the mailings “a page from the Forest City Ratner playbook.”

It’s unclear whether Two Trees will pay for the school portion of the project or if the company expects the city to pick up the tab. But Yassky says it makes a big difference.

“If all they’re saying is, we’ll offer the space to the Board of Education so they can buy it, well, the Board of Education can buy space in a lot of places,” he said.

Two Trees officials said the details still need to be worked out, but company heir Jed Walentas is optimistic.

“From a public policy standpoint, I anticipate widespread support,” he said, noting that the community had been “clamoring for decades” for a middle school — even though DUMBO has only recently begun attracting families.

He also touted the company’s commitment to meet eco-friendly construction standards.

But Walentas admitted that “not everyone in the world will like” the 18-story building.

“For example, the Brooklyn Heights Association has opposed everything we’ve ever built.”

Perhaps, but the BHA did not want to take a formal position on the latest design until Two Trees had formally presented its proposal to the Association after this issue went to press.

But Association Executive Director Judy Stanton did see the need for a middle school.

“We’ve become much more of a public school neighborhood than we were,” she said, pointing to the full-capacity PS 8 elementary school on Hicks Street on the DUMBO end of Brooklyn Heights. “Graduating fifth-graders do not have adequate choices.”

Others agreed, but didn’t think a giant mixed-use building was the answer.

“We do need a middle school, but this need … should not be used to leverage an out-of-scale development,” said Karen Johnson, president of the DUMBO Neighborhood Association. “We are against the height and density and will … oppose this.”



(Previous 2004 plan)

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

[sfenn1117]

I think the new design is an improvement, I like the building better oriented that way and it looks more like an old industrial building (the stated goal). Walentas is smart including that school, otherwise this would have no chance.

[BrooklynRider]

Walentas is both smart and sensitive to the community. He is one of the best developers in Brooklyn. I walk the Brooklyn Bridge four or five times a week. I think this building would be perfect on that lot and it does not in anyway impact the bridge. If we want to complain about blocking the bridge, let's tak about Verizon on the west side of the bridge.

I give the design two thumbs up.

Watch for all the new people in 70 Washington (who've been there less that 18 months) to start talking about the character of THEIR neighbohood. DUMBO is a bit of a joke. This an ideal spot to build.

[MidtownGuy]

Yes, the new plan is quite handsome.

[Darmok]

The photos are mislabeled (it was a mistake on the caption on Brooklyn Papers online). The 2004 plan had 16 stories along Water Street, while the new plan has 17 stories on a parcel between Water and Front Streets, in the space formerly occupied by Nova Clutch. The space above St Ann's Warehouse is slated to be 8 stories.

[Fahzee]

Today, the landmarks preservation committee will vote to Calender the dumbo historic district.


http://dumbonyc.com/

[antinimby]

The latest on David Walentas' Water St. proposal from the Brownstoner blog:

Yassky and Walentas Square Off over Dock Street

Councilman David Yassky was one of the many people who opposed Two Trees Management's 2004 proposal for its Dock Street site in Dumbo on the grounds that it cramped the Brooklyn Bridge's style.

Well, as previously reported, it's 2007 and Two Trees is in the middle of a p.r. campaign trying to sell its kinder, gentler plan for the Dock Street project but Yassky's still not buying.

On Sunday, The Times ran a letter from him urging residents not to let the developer's promises to build a much-needed middle school into the mixed-use site sway them.

Why? He was already addressing the school issue himself. "I have spoken with the Department of Education, and am forming a task force comprising neighborhood residents and P.S. 8 parents to evaluate the qualities the middle school should have," he wrote.

"Based on that evaluation, we will consider available locations and create an appropriate middle school for the area.”

In an email forward to the blog DumboNYC, the councilman boiled down his position on the project to a single sentence: "My position was and remains that a building at a location this close to the Brooklyn Bridge should be no taller than 8 stories or 80 feet."

Never one to take a little political opposition lying down, Dumbo's largest land owner retaliated yesterday with a flyer it distributed around the neighborhood providing residents with a ready-made petition.

"Dear Council Member Yassky," the petition begins. "The families of DUMBO, Vinegar Hill and Brooklyn Heights need a new middle school in our area. Please support the Dock Street DUMBO project that will create environmentally sensitive and affordable housing, additional shopping opportunities and parking in our community."

Walentas' petition:

[Derek2k3]

What view of the bridge is this building blocking that is so important?


NY Post
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08132007...ich_calder.htm


RUMBLE OVER JUMBO DUMBO APARTMENT COMPLEX
By RICH CALDER

August 13, 2007 -- Political and community opposition is mounting against a prominent DUMBO developer's latest attempt to build an apartment tower next to the Brooklyn Bridge - although it's part of a plan to bring the fast-growing neighborhood a much-needed middle school.

Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn), who was instrumental in getting a 16-story apartment complex proposed by developer David Walentas scrapped three years ago, is now taking on the latest vision of the so-called "Father of DUMBO" for the former industrial area between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridge overpasses.

And like the last battle, the big issue is over the project blocking views of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

Walentas' proposed $200 million, 400-apartment, middle school and retail project is to be built on prime real estate the developer owns along Water, Dock and Front streets. It would range from 7- to 16-stories high.

"DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights do need a middle school, but it should not be used as an excuse for an inappropriate building," said Yassky, who is forming a task force to find an alternate site for a school.

rich.calder@nypost.com

[antinimby]

We all know it ain't about the views of the bridge, it's just an excuse to block the increase in more residents in the neighborhood.

If the bridge wasn't there, they'd be coming up with some other reason against it.

[BrooklynRider]

Two Trees tries tower — again — on Water St.





By Harry Cheadle
for The Brooklyn Paper
June 30 - July 7, 2007

Developer David Walentas has proposed to add another castle to his DUMBO fiefdom: a $200-million, 400-apartment, commercial and middle school project on Water Street, between Water and Front streets — the same location where a similar Walentas proposal was defeated in 2004...

There was a group of DUMBO residents with placards trying to get people to sign a petition against this building. They had renderings that looked NOTHING like this and really misrepresented the building. I was asked to sign the petition. I told them I thought the building was perfectly appropriate for the area, in context with the neighborhood, and affected nothing except the views of a building full of residents who live here for less than a year.

I noted that it was selfish that they would block a new school and the reworked design to basically protect the views of million dollar condos. I'm not sure what reactions they had received earlier, but I kid you not when I say they were in a state of stunned silence.

I also thought it was pretty obvious that they had little support in the community when they had to take their petition to the bridge pedestrian walkway and ask tourists to sign the petition.

Rather pathetic.

[Dynamicdezzy]

wow, that's pretty sad....

[BrooklynLove]

i recall reading in one of the recent reports re brooklyn bridge park expansion progress that the project depended somewhat on parking garage space slated to go in this new walentas building, and that the opposition could put a wrench in things if successful, so it seems that the implications go even further than the immediate neighborhood.

[Fahzee]

Landmarks will officially vote on the Dumbo Historic District next Tuesday, December 18th.

[BrooklynLove]

Landmarks will officially vote on the Dumbo Historic District next Tuesday, December 18th.

will they be reaching a decision on the upzoning of in-district non-historical buildings and perimeter buildings at that time as well?