Will Public Place Development Grow?

Yesterday, we noted that one of the more interesting things that was said at the community meeting on Monday night about the big Public Place development along the Gowanus Canal was the fact that the owner of a neighboring property was said to be interested in joining with the winning development team. The privately-owned parcel has always been left out of the plans, but including it would greatly increase the size of the development. The land in question sits under a huge warehouse that will have to be demolished as part of the cleanup of the highly toxic substances sitting beneath the Public Place site. National Grid, which is a successor to KeySpan, which in turn inherited the horrid pollution problem from a variety of predecessors, will be responsible for cleaning the site. The extent of the cleanup to ostensibly make the site fit for human habitation has yet to be determined.

In any case, Sarah Ryley provides a lot more detail about the property and its owner in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Clothing magnate Henry Abadi owns the four-acre property adjacent to Public Place, where he warehouses the uniforms and sportswear he sells across the city. Together, the two properties span from Fourth Street to Huntington Street, and from Smith Street to the Gowanus Canal...Abadi said city officials encouraged him to team up with the winner, though the requirements for his privately owned land would likely be less stringent on affordability and open space than the city-owned Public Place. He pointed out that he is demolishing his warehouse, worth “between $13 and $15 million  just for the sake of cleaning up the area.” KeySpan Energy, now national Grid, is required to cleanup heavy contamination on Abadi’s property and Public Place, both the site of a former manufactured gas plant.

Including the property in the bigger development plan could push the total units of housing far above 1,000 units, increasing the size of the development site from 6 acres up to 10 acres.