Monday, May 01, 2006

"Gowanus Village" Marches Forward

Gowanus Village has inched a step closer to reality with the purchase of the Jewish Press Building on Third Avenue by developer Shaya Boymelgreen. The property on which the structure sits would allow the residential project on the banks of Gowanus between Carroll Street and Second Street to stretch from Third Avenue to the canal itself. The sale was reported by Ariella Cohen in the Brooklyn Paper, who writes that this and other projects would transform Gowanus "into a village of housing, stores, art galleries and waterfront esplanades."

While rumors of the area's wholesale transformation may be somewhat premature, projects planned by Boymelgreen and other developers will eventually fill the post-industrial wasteland between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens with new housing and retail. And, no doubt, give us another neighborhood named by real estate marketers.

Cohen suggests "Park Slope River." "G-Slope" has also been tossed about.

How about Carroll Slope? Park Gardens? Gowanus Gardens? BeCaPa? (Between Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.) G.O.P.A.? (Gowanus Park Slope.)

The Gowanus Village project could weigh in with more than 400 units and 375,000 square feet of space in four-, six- and ten-story buildings. It will be designed by Mexican architect Enrique Norten and is planned as a "green-certified" project. (Gowanus Lounge aspires to live in one of those apartments with a "waterfront" vista.)

News of the project first surfaced in 2004; the Leviev Boymelgreen website cites a 2008 completion date. Leviev Boymelgreen has major development juice with dozens of projects to its name. Boymelgreen is developing the Empire Stores (shopping mall conversion in Dumbo) and is the behind the (rather massive) apartment tower on Fourth Avenue between Third and Fourth streets and the (Acorn-protested) Beacon Tower in Dumbo.

Gowanus Village still has to negotiate a long approval process, and opposition from neighborhood groups and those concerned that this and other developments will force out artists that have made Gowanus their base. A bigger problem than artists and activists could turn out to be the environmentally-challenged condition of our favorite Brooklyn neighborhood (witness the oozing hole in the ground that has stalled progress on the Whole Foods at Third Avenue and Third Street).

Stay tuned.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about "Park Anus"?

2:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

not sure how much i like this idea.

5:04 PM  
Blogger Bob Shattuck said...

Hey Robert, I keep reading your stuff on cherrybleeds. Love the bunny story.

I live in SF and once I had a lovely temp job, running around in a big $5000 dog suit at a teachers/educational convention . . . got to squeeeeeze a lot of eager teachers who just had to take a picture with the doggy. My name was RAGS, which was an acronym for something . . . flash forward a few months or a year and I get this gig on easter to be a bunny and hand out chocolates and business cards. no problem I'm thinking and then, easter morning I meet the client with the bunny suit waiting and it turns out to be almost a pair of pajamas, a bunny cap with ears and OF course, a pink nose on a rubber band and a fluffy tail. To make matters worse, I end up getting dropped off in the CASTRO for three hours of fun. I didn't shoot anyone, but I came close . . . anyway, I've had a few stories on cherrybleeds and if you get a chance . . . check 'em out. Thanks, bob

9:36 PM  
Blogger Bob Shattuck said...

p.s. Do you do any readings in NY?? I'll be there in june probably and certainly in williamsburg with my wacky buddy. later??

9:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah leave it to that fucking cunt shaya to ruin gowanus and destroy my memories of inside those buildings i hope a train kills the cunt

11:40 PM  

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