Last month, YIMBY reported on new office space in the works for 187 Cook Street in East Williamsburg. Now, we have the first rendering of the development, which will rise between Bushwick Avenue and White Street.
Property owner Patrick Moses is following up on applications originally filed in 2013 for a four-story, seven-unit residential building at 11 Conselyea Street, in northern Williamsburg, located two blocks from either the Metropolitan Av. or Lorimer St. stops on the G or L trains, respectively. The new structure will measure 6,499 square feet, and its residential units should average 714 square feet apiece, indicative of rental apartments. Both apartments on the fourth floor will also feature space – bedrooms, specifically – on the building’s upper penthouse level. Astoria-based Christopher V. Papa is the architect of record. Demolition permits were filed in 2015 to raze the site’s existing three-story townhouse.
SEF Industries is proposing a floating six-story, 79-megawatt electrical plant in the Wallabout Federal Navigation Channel, located right off the coast of South Williamsburg and north of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The facility would measure 100-feet-wide and 220-feet-long, and would feed directly into Brooklyn’s power grid. The natural gas-powered plant would be able to store three days’ worth of fuel, and would be refueled from the East River. The developer has submitted plans with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a permanent barge where the facility would go. SEF apparently has all of the remaining approvals, the Brooklyn Daily Paper reports. Comments on the proposal are due April 30, and the Army Corps will subsequently green-light or disapprove the project later this year.
In general, new construction reflects local real estate demand and community needs. But given New York’s position as a global economic hub, it is not surprising that one of the city’s largest engineering efforts is a direct response to a megaproject 2,200 miles away. The suspended roadbed of the 84-year-old Bayonne Bridge, which spans the Kill Van Kull strait between Staten Island and Bayonne, N.J., is too low for passage of the latest, giant container ships built to traverse the expanded Panama Canal locks. If the Port of New York and New Jersey fails to accommodate such vessels, the nation’s largest metro area would suffer considerable economic damage. To keep up with the canal’s expansion, slated to open later this year, the Port Authority is raising the bridge roadbed from 151 to 215 feet above the mean water level. The Navigational Clearance Project is expected to cost $1.3 billion.
A thrift store just moved into a warehouse at 387 Bushwick Avenue, across from Bushwick Houses in East Williamsburg, but it may not be there for long. The thrift store and two neighboring buildings will likely bite the dust for a seven-story apartment building.