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How sweet it is: Locals flood waterfront Domino Park on opening day

Picture of people walking at the Domino Park promenade
More than 90 people from St. Nicks Workforce Development were hired to work at the Domino redevelopment. The organization is hoping for more temporary and permanent jobs at River Ring.
Taylor Balkom

These locals got their sugar high!

Fans of the great outdoors flocked to the Williamsburg waterfront on Sunday to be among the first to step inside the newly finished park at the old Domino Sugar factory campus on its opening day.

And the suite of sweet amenities at the so-called Domino Park, which stretches across six acres along the East River, has something that everyone can enjoy, according to a Downtowner who trekked to the green space for its grand opening.

“I enjoyed the fountain, and the playground was a lot of fun for the kids,” said Melinda Chu. “It was very nice, and had a lot of different things.”

Active park-goers can play games on volleyball and bocce courts; hungry visitors can grab grub at taqueria Tacocina, which is run by the restaurateur behind Shake Shack and serves individual tacos stuffed with cheeses, veggies, meats, or seafood at prices between $3.50 and $4.50; and curious patrons can learn about the site’s past by walking among artifacts salvaged from the old sugar factory that decorate the lawn — a highlight of the Kent Avenue meadow between Grand and S. Fifth streets, Chu said.

“That was very interesting. It’s nice to tie the park back to the history,” she said.

Brooklyn-based developer Two Trees, which owns the park, created it as part of the firm’s ongoing makeover of the old Domino campus into a five-building megadevelopment with residential, office, and other commercial spaces. And although Domino Park is privately owned, it is open to the public — not just folks who move in to one of the towers rising around it.

The green space is the second of the larger development site’s many components to open, following the debut of its donut-shaped tower at 325 Kent Ave., which residents moved into last summer.

Elsewhere on the campus, workers are amidst their transformation of Domino Sugar’s landmarked refinery building into swanky new offices, and constructing a 42-story tower with residential and commercial space from the ground up at 260 Kent Ave., which is expected to open late next year.

And Two Trees bigwigs’ master plan calls for erecting two more buildings, which will likely also feature some combination of commercial and residential spaces when complete.

Reach reporter Julianne Cuba at (718) 260–4577 or by e-mail at jcuba@cnglocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @julcuba.