A series of high-rise residential buildings under construction or planned
in DUMBO have residents concerned that the city and local government has
been too lackadaisical in assessing the impact of project-specific zoning
allowances.
Foundation work has begun at 85 Adams St. for a 30-story tower that will
become the first skyscraper in DUMBO’s relatively low-rise, 10-story
warehouse district.
The mixed-use building, called Beacon Tower by developer Leviev Boymelgreen,
will bring 79 one- and two-bedroom luxury condominium apartments with
private terraces, as well as three-bedroom penthouses, a rooftop garden
and 3,700 square feet of ground-floor retail.
But as construction commences, members of the same groups of residents
that vehemently fought much lower-rise buildings than the 297-foot tower
under construction are left shaking their heads, and without recourse
to block the as-of-right building.
“It certainly represents a failure on the part of Vinegar Hill and
DUMBO to not have opposed them,” said Nicholas Evans-Cato, an area
artist and president of the Vinegar Hill Association, who apologetically
explained that he was not the president of the organization when the zoning
for the building passed the city’s land use review process.
“That was a big screw-up,” Evans-Cato said at a meeting held
by the two neighborhood groups earlier in December. The meeting was called
to address the City Planning Commission’s approval of the Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society’s proposal to build four 14- to 20-story
dormitories on an empty lot bounded by Bridge, York, Front and Jay streets,
a block away from the Adams Street development.
Since the meeting, the city has approved Watchtower’s plans.
The same group of local homeowners and renters were the thorn in the side
of David and Jed Walentas in their plans to develop a 17-story tower at
38 Water St. That plan was defeated largely due to the mixed-use building’s
proximity to the Brooklyn Bridge overpass, views of which would have blocked.
But the height allowance for the Boymelgreen building, which abuts the
less beloved Manhattan Bridge overpass, was approved by Community Board
2, the first step in its city review, mainly because it was not the first
skyscraper to receive such a variance in the neighborhood.
According to Ursula Hahn, a longstanding member of CB2’s Land Use
committee — she is not a board member — the committee had no
reason to disallow a zoning variance at 85 Adams St. when it came up for
review in 2003, because a variance had been granted in 2001 for 100 Jay
St., on the other side of the Manhattan Bridge, for a since defunct proposal
to build a luxury high-rise called “Light Bridges,” which had
promised spectacular architecture and ground-level retail in what was
then a largely barren area.
“Light Bridges was rezoned a couple years ago,” Hahn said, and
had been brought to the CB2 Land Use committee in a model presentation
by Cara Developers and their architects, Sharples Holden Pasquarelli (SHoP).
“They showed this dazzling, undulating light tower, and I think we
noticed that this was going to be very high, but we were also very enamored
with this building,” she said.
In January 2002, 100 Jay St.’s rezoning was approved by the City
Council, the final step in the review process.
At the time, according to reports in The Brooklyn Papers, the two tall
buildings proposed to span the block bounded by York, Pearl, Jay and Front
streets were going to stand 18 stories and sit on a common base, and while
then-DUMBO Neighborhood Association president Rachel Demarest Gold told
The Papers that her group had been concerned about the height, she also
said, “Everything else is positive.”
That plan never broke ground.
What is planned for the 100 Jay St. site now is a 31-story, box-like building
with a wall of windows on the east-facing facade.
“The new building is taller, but it’s also a less interesting
building” than Light Bridges, said Nancy Webster, president of the
DNA.
According to filings with the city’s Department of Buildings, 100
Jay St. will stand 337 feet tall, and offer 260 apartments, 268 parking
spaces and possibly retail and offices on the first four floors.
Now neighbors want the City Planning Commission to “make a pledge”
to disallow any more site-specific rezoning “before a comprehensive
rezoning that the community can be involved in,” said Webster. “We
want to preserve the contextual historic character of the neighborhood.”
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