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Property-ganda! Gowanus developer publishing local newspaper

Property-ganda! Gowanus developer publishing local newspaper
Photo by Stefano Giovannini

Call it the real-estate-run media!

The developer of a massive new luxury apartment building on the Gowanus Canal is publishing its own neighborhood newspaper that it says is designed to steer the conversation away from the notoriously toxic waterway and towards the area’s arts and nightlife scene.

But some locals believe it is really just propaganda to attract new tenants, and is cashing in on the creative folk whose homes and studios are rapidly being replaced with luxury housing.

“It’s to get people to come,” said Amy Holman. “They want to show you that it’s still got artists, even though a building such as this will help to drive out the people who live here as artists because they can’t afford it.”

Lightstone Group, which opened its new 430-unit building 365 Bond — between First and Second streets — earlier this year, has so far published two editions of its free 12-page broadsheet the Gowanus Gowilla, which it distributes via local businesses twice a year.

Advertising company Co-op Brand Partners creates content, which has so far included profiles of local restaurants, galleries, and bars, as well as several positive spins about life along the canal.

One article jokingly pontificates that the noxious waterway could one day be a Venice-style canal, a bayou, or part of a re-purposed public park a la the Highline.

Others are more earnest — including an interview with a landscape architect touting the public esplanade he designed in front of 365 Bond, and a piece about the federal canal cleanup that never actually mentions what is wrong with the water but spills a lot of ink on the developer’s investment in new infrastructure and landscaping.

But Lightstone’s honchos claim they’re not trying to move units — just celebrating their new neighborhood.

“We thought it would be a fun and helpful neighborhood guide so locals and visitors alike could see all the many activities and attractions Gowanus offers,” said Scott Avram, the company’s executive vice president of development. “It is clearly not focused on or specific to the development.”

And at least one 365 Bond resident agrees — he says he has learned about some new local restaurants from the gazette, and didn’t need convincing to live next to the Canal because the pong doesn’t bother him.

“The truth is I don’t notice,” said John Hartnagel, who previously lived in Park Slope.

Many neighbors objected to the city rezoning the Canal-side land to make way for the development — which they claimed would be too dense for the area and too dangerous for tenants — back in 2009, though the plan eventually won the support of the local community board and then-Councilman Bill DeBlasio, thanks in part to the inclusion of below-market-rate housing.

One longtime local says he doesn’t mind welcoming the new building and its newspaper to the neighborhood, though he can’t help be a bit sad about the neighborhood’s gentrification.

“I think it’s great, but at the same time it’s depressing,” said Angelo, who lives in the same Gowanus home that he was born in 60 years ago and says he remembers finding dead bodies in the area when out playing as a youngster.

The next edition of the Gowanus Gowilla will be out in the summer or fall, according to Avrams.

Reach reporter Lauren Gill at lgill@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–2511. Follow her on Twitter @laurenk_gill