Huge, Contaminated Greenpoint Factory Finally Sells to Developers, 400 Apartments Planned

The former Harte & Co. plastics factory at 280 Franklin Street in Greenpoint finally sold last week for $23,250,000, after two years in contract. The deal includes 10 separate properties along Clay and Dupont Streets that were part of the long-vacant factory complex, according to public records. The buyer is Williamsburg-based Dupont Street Developers LLC, but the signatory on the mortgage documents is a developer named Bo Jin Zhu, as The Real Deal noted last week. His company owns 29 Ryerson Street in Clinton Hill and has purchased development sites in Harlem and the Lower East Side.

Preservationists have spent years trying to save the 31,000-square-foot main factory building, a 1930s Arte Moderne structure with a unique curved facade. But the seller, Nuhart & Co., allowed underground storage tanks full of toxic chemicals to leak into the soil and groundwater, and the state declared it a Superfund site. The company made vinyl siding and sheeting at the factory for over 20 years before moving its operations out of the building in 2004. It will cost just under $10,000,000 to remediate the large property, the Brooklyn Eagle reported.

After cleaning up the site, Zhu’s development team plans to build a 400-unit apartment building with 200 parking spaces, according to the Eagle. They hope to build affordable and market-rate apartments, community facilities, and possibly a grocery store on the site. With affordable housing bonuses, the property has 400,000 square feet of development rights. The buyer hasn’t said whether the original building will be incorporated into the new development, which will be built in three phases.

The site is close to the water and the planned towers at Greenpoint Landing and 77 Commercial Street.

Local Chinese Developer Snags Stake in $49 Million Greenpoint Site [TRD]
Apartments Planned at Harte & Co. Factory Site [Eagle]