Drilling Continues at Toxic Public Place as Developers Line Up

Things are moving forward at the Public Place site in Gowanus. A reader emailed us the other day to note that work crews were still on site with a drilling rig taking soil samples or digging test wells, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle has reported five developers have submitted proposals--including many heavyweights--to develop the environmentally challenged site between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal on the fringes of Carroll Gardens and Gowanus. The project that will include up to 1,000 units of housing and buildings up to 10-12 stories tall. The six-acre site was the site of a manufactured gas plant and toxins are said to be up to 150 feet underground. (To us, it looks like the crews on site have been drilling wells, as there seem to be metal tubes coming out the ground that weren't there a week ago.) The Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp. is listed as a partner in four of the proposals and is apparently working to get into the fifth one. The developers include Time Warner Center developer the Related Companies, Two Trees Management, Strategic Development with Avalon Bay Communities, The Hudson Companies and The World-Wide Group. Hudson is developing a project at Third and Bond, and has teamed with the Fifth Avenue Committee for this one.The development has to include affordable housing, senior citizen housing, ground-floor retail and open space among other things. We don't have the complete list of which local groups are partnering with which big developer.