Come see Greenpoint Landing’s new waterfront promenade

Eye On Real Estate

September 5, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Welcome to the new waterfront promenade that runs alongside the Greenpoint Landing mega-development. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan

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The first piece of Greenpoint Landing’s waterfront promenade is open to the public.

So far, so good.

The 2005 rezoning of Williamsburg and Greenpoint requires developer Greenpoint Landing Associates to construct a public park as part of its 22-acre, multi-building project along Commercial and West streets.

After we read about the August debut of the first snippet of Greenpoint Landing’s promenade in BKLYNER and the Greenpoint Post, we had to go see it for ourselves.

We found the completed section of the park by walking down Franklin Street to where it ends at Commercial Street and turning right. In short order, there’s a newly created cul-de-sac called Bell Slip running along the edge of new Greenpoint Landing apartment buildings.

Hello, Chrysler Building

At the end of this cul-de-sac, a fine grassy lawn stands next to a shoreline esplanade. There’s an excellent view of the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the United Nations and other Midtown Manhattan skyscrapers.

The vista looks pretty great even when dark clouds loom.

On a sunshiny day with blue skies, the promenade will be a prime spot to sit on brand-new benches and soak up the scenery. Thanks to picnic tables arrayed here and there, it will be a nice place to nosh.

Along the mini-park’s walkways, plantings are lined up with mathematical precision on swaths of soil.

James Corner Field Operations designed the new promenade. Readers with good memories will recall that this landscape architecture firm also designed Domino Park on the Williamsburg waterfront — and the popular High Line in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea.

A stroll through Greenpoint Landing’s new park also gives you the opportunity to see the East River-facing side of one of its new apartment towers, 37 Blue Slip.

Don’t expect the promenade to be 100 percent tranquil. On weekdays, you can hear construction work going on at another Greenpoint Landing tower, 41 Blue Slip, that’s rising at the edge of the park.