BROOKLYN — Sitting in a folding chair five feet from the hustling East River and later staring up and down the Williamsburg waterfront, one could better appreciate how unusual this all was.

Last Tuesday, as Linda Collins reported in Wednesday’s Eagle, the developers of what will be known as the Domino Project opened the old factory gates and talked to the press about what they hope to do with this 11.2-acre site — the Domino Sugar refinery.

Throughout the hour or so of discussions, questions and brief walking tours, several things became obvious, if only because few people in the past 150 years have had the luxury of sitting on chairs there gawking around.

One thing that became clear is that the Domino site is the most prominent part of the Williamsburg waterfront. Looking north and south from the site, the waterfront fades out of sight, clear proof if ever needed that the East River is anything but straight.

One looks northeast and sees Midtown Manhattan; looking at the same angle southwest, one sees the Con Ed plant in Vinegar Hill. Seeing that rather ugly complex, and knowing that it only produces steam nowadays, one can visualize something else being there in a few years.

It is clear that the developer, CPC Resources, managing partner in Refinery LLC, is aware of the implications of the prominence of this site. Hiring one of the top world architects, Rafael Viñoly, to design the new, and Beyer Blender Belle to preserve the old, is clear proof that serious thinking is under way.

Because the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) is so proud of its record in creating affordable housing units, Michael Lappin, the group’s president, spent a lot of time discussing its plans for more than 600 apartments of a total of 2,220, and why they will try to hurry up the construction of those units first.

But the size of the proposed project, stretching from Grand Street in the north to South Fifth Street — six blocks — makes this the largest single waterfront residential project in the history of Brooklyn. And that claim will probably stand for quite some time.

The fact that the developers expect to spend more than one billion dollars to get all this done is an indication that this isn’t going to be a haphazard piece of work.

Already, in looking at the open space concepts of the plan — six different ways for anybody to access the 40-foot-wide esplanade — and a large central open space core, it is apparent that this will probably turn out to be a crown in Mayor Bloomberg’s dossier of opening up the New York waterfront. The long eight-year project will get an official opening on July 31 when an official “scoping session� will take place to discuss what subject areas should go into the production of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

It won’t be until sometime next year that various levels of public and government approvals are obtained. Only after that can the project begin in seriousness.

Because of the height of the waterfront buildings — 30 to 40 stories — there will be criticism of the project’s scale, especially since much of the upland area is low level. There will probably be other concerns, especially about traffic and transportation.

But on Tuesday, there was a beginning of sorts. Now, Brooklyn can lay claim to three major projects under way — Brooklyn Bridge Park, Atlantic Yards and the New Domino. Before we know it, we will be grappling with major projects in Coney Island, as well.

Welcome to the new Brooklyn.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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