Vying Public Place Plans Get an Airing

Last night the general public got its first look at plans to construct several new buildings, hundreds of units of housing, a sizeable amount of community space, and a chunk of parkland on a city-owned property in Gowanus. A representative from the department of Housing Preservation and Development gave a presentation on the two proposals currently being considered for the 5.8-acre Public Place site, a brownfield that runs from the Gowanus Canal to the intersection of Smith and Fifth streets. HPD intends to select of one of the competing bids for the property—a very polluted piece of land that was formerly home to a manufactured gas plant—next month. One of the proposals is being led by The Related Companies, while the other is from The Hudson Companies. HPD’s Gabriella Amabile revealed details of the two proposals but not the identities of the firms behind them; the proposals, as rendered above and on the jump, were attributed to Team A (which we’re pretty sure—and Gowanus Lounge agrees—is Related) and Team B (Hudson).

On paper, both plans have a lot of similarities: Team A is proposing 725 residential units and Team B is proposing 774 units, and both plans include 100 or more units of low-income senior housing. Of the housing that’s not earmarked for seniors, Team A calls for 61 percent of units to be affordable to families making less than 130 percent of the area median income (roughly $88,000 for a family of four), while Team B proposed that 64 percent of its non-senior units be affordable to families in the same income bracket. Both plans also call for a significant amount of public open space (including a waterfront esplanade) that will be run by the Parks Dept. The teams are also pushing for eco-friendly designs that take into account the extremely unique circumstances next to the canal. Each will seek LEED certification; both have introduced designs that will result in underground parking in the section of the site where the most excavation will be required; and the two developments would capture and clean all storm water before it went into the canal. Keyspan has committed to helping with the site’s remediation.

The main difference between the two proposals has to do with the amount of retail and cultural/community space each is allocating, and the amount of building density on the table. Team A wants to build around 18,000 square feet of retail space and 9,000 square feet of cultural/community space, while Team B is gunning for more than 38,000 feet of retail and more than 26,000 feet of cultural/community space. Since Team B’s proposal includes more retail and community space, it’s also a denser development; both plans involve several buildings of varying heights, but more of Team B’s buildings would be taller (the max height the city is allowing is 12 stories).

After HPD selects the winning proposal, the timeline foreseen right now would mean that ULURP applications and environmental review begin sometime in the spring, with official ULURP and site remediation commencing in spring/summer ’09.
Public Place Development Finalists Detailed [Gowanus Lounge]
Gowanus Roundup: Public Pl. Bids Whittled, Builders Bullish [Brownstoner] GMAP
Five Developers Bid for Public Place Site [Brownstoner]