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Sugar site leveled; BJ’s next?

Sugar site leveled; BJ’s next?

Developer Joe Sitt is still sweet on retail along the Red Hook waterfront, a company spokesperson insisted this week.

Despite the demolition of a 19th century warehouse on the Revere Sugar refinery site on Richards Street, Sitt’s development company, Thor Equities, is still receiving “a lot of interest from potential tenants,” but nothing is confirmed as of yet, company spokesperson Stefan Friedman said.

Thor’s original intention was to adaptively reuse the Revere Sugar factory warehouse as part of a new development.“But after further analysis, the engineers found structural problems with the building, making it unstable and potentially dangerous, and we were forced to proceed with taking the structure down,” Friedman said.

Workers began to tear down the aged structure last week.

It is rumored that national retailer BJ’s Wholesale Club was eyeing the site.

Sitt acquired the property in 2005 for $40.5 million. At one time, the developer, known for his extensive holdings in Coney Island, planned to convert the Red Hook site into housing, offices and shops. The property is located in an area zoned for manufacturing use; retail development there would trigger an exhaustive public review, called a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).