Broker Dreams Of Outlet Shopping At Revere Site
Good brokers don’t just sell property, they sell a vision, especially when dealing with raw land or an area on the cusp of change. Red Hook might have missed this past gentrification wave but the sleepy neighborhood of 11,000 will no doubt be flooded with shoppers once IKEA opens June 18. Change is inevitable, considering…
Good brokers don’t just sell property, they sell a vision, especially when dealing with raw land or an area on the cusp of change. Red Hook might have missed this past gentrification wave but the sleepy neighborhood of 11,000 will no doubt be flooded with shoppers once IKEA opens June 18. Change is inevitable, considering IKEA openings in far less dense cities have caused deadly stampedes, rendered stoplights useless and clogged expressways so badly desperate shoppers simply parked and hopped the fence (things calmed down after awhile). Some people try to push back the tides of change, others surf on them. Massey Knakal director of sales Landon McGaw told us he thinks the neighborhood is ripe for an outlet mall and said Thor Equities’ Revere Sugar Refinery site would be the perfect location. The refinery has been demolished, leaving a huge waterfront lot between Fairway Market and IKEA that allows 1.3 million square feet of development, according to Property Shark. “There’s no outlet shopping in all of New York City,” said McGaw, adding that he has a direct line to one of the nation’s most prolific outlet shopping mall owners and knows developers here who have been mulling the idea. “Vorando, Related [Companies], they all have their eye on Red Hook.” Just think, one day you could outfit your entire life for rock-bottom prices by visiting Red Hook’s waterfront: Nab your pre-fab dining room set and bold curtins at IKEA; last season’s J Crew khakis at Revere Outlet Mall; and gourmet fare at Fairway. See how Thor Equities responded after the jump…
Even if outlet shopping becomes a reality here, it would be several years off and we think it would run into considerable opposition. But like most suburban-style implants that offend many peoples’ most basic urban sensibilities, if an outlet mall actually opened it would probably be buh-nan-ahs. We asked Thor Equities spokesman Stefan Friedman if the retail magnate is considering McGaw’s idea (the above rendering, sans sign, was unearthed a while ago by Curbed and has a residential component). He responded with this statement: “280 Richards Street provides an enormous opportunity to develop something really special given Red Hook’s ongoing revitalization … We are therefore keeping all of our options open and look forward to hearing suggestions from the community about how to best develop this parcel.” So, what do you think?
StreetLevel: Hook IKEA Opening Soon [Brownstoner]
Revere Dome Comes Back to Life in Shipping Mall [Curbed]
IKEA Openings Everywhere Leave Path of Mayhem, Cars [Answers.com]
If the MTA stepped in to extend the G line into Red Hook, this place would get cleaned up fast. It’s a true wonder of the city as of now, and taking advantage of low income housing and poor transportation to turn it into a woodbury commons is a shame.
One of the beggest problems in Red Hook is that a large portion of it is zoned industrial and, like it or not, industrial is a thing of the past in New York. Red Hook has fabulous views and could have fabulous housing, too, but for the existing zoning in the area (which makes it virtually impossible to build residential on one pier — you need good residential throughout the area to build a residential base). With little housing other than the Projects, the Red Hook market simply won’t support housing at numbers that are profitable, and developers won’t build unless they can make a profit. So don’t be surprised that, when the market won’t support housing which is high-end enough to pay, retail becomes the only viable choice.
Is it just me, or does it seem like every developer in this city chooses from one of two templates: Battery Park City, or Orem, Utah? I think they should build a fence around Red Hook, pay the locals to act they they always do, leave the decay intact, and call the whole place “NewYorkWorld’85.” Europeans would pay money to get mugged, movies would have place to shoot gritty films, and frankly, it would be a hell of a lot more aesthetically pleasing than anything tools like Joe Sitt are going to come up with. Unless, of course, he promises a blimp landing pad.
To the posters who think that the waterfront is wasted as big box shopping and should’ve been residentially developed, I ask: Who would be able to afford it?
Any waterfront property in Brooklyn is not easily accessible or is still industrial. And, if stores are built, shoppers will come. Everyone in Brooklyn doesn’t have a car. That never stopped anyone from Brooklyn from shopping at the IKEA in NJ.
Brownstoner, why are some of my comments not posting?
Didn’t you just spend billions of dollars and hours migrating to a new server? And at the opportune time of the flea opening so you would not have to worry about anyone trying to sabotage your master plan to take over Brooklyn?
Mimi, 3rd avenue is not very far east in those neck of the woods. You still have Second Ave., First Ave., York Ave., and East End Ave.
Go to google maps and look at the distance from the subway from Gracie Mansion and then the distance from Red Hook. There are places in Red Hook where the walk is more and places where the walk is less.
As I’ve said a million times, Red Hook will be a giant bull’s eye for much future big big box development so as long as the community is so divided – the houses v. the back, residential v. industrial, hipsters v. yuppies, trust funders v. drug dealers, santimommies v. old school families, renters v. homeowners, Bugaboos v. Gracos, McGettrick v. O’Connell.
It doesn’t take much to divide and conquer a fractious community with so much infighting. Hopefully, the wacky villagers will wake up and discover three things:
1)the industrial types such as SWBIDC can help stop the proliferation of big box stores in Red Hook;
2.)If your going to see any major land use changes in Red Hook, O’Connell, the area’s largest landlord must be at the table no matter what you think of him;
3.)Forget notions of the dated, pie-in-the-sky 197 A plan or Strober Brother’s plan for the Todd Shipyard and come up with a realistic development scheme that includes small commercial and light industrial on the waterfront and upzones portions of the existing residential areas from R3 to R6 to spur a higher caliber of construction in the nabe.
Some of us on the UES did take the subway. My husband drives but I don’t know how and never want to learn. Often I would Taxi it or once in a while use my uncle’s driver, but the subway was always faster. I was on 86&3, just 4 blocks from Gracie Mansion and have friends who live right across the street from it and they would take the subway as well.The walk to the station was nothing at all like a walk in Red Hook.It was alot nicer and much quicker. Red Hook is the middle of nowhere.-Mimi
Ikea should have been in the industrial section of Sunset Park, which is also where the American Stevedoring should be, which is also where and other big box visions should go. You know, like where Costco and Home Depot are, where you have easy access from the BQE.
Our only hope for Ikea is that it will be so frustrating trying to get to and leave the store that everyone will give up even trying. Although even if no one ever set foot in that store, Ikea got their money’s worth just for the advertising positioning of that sight as the international community of cruise ship vacationers go in and out of New York harbor and their first two recognizable icons will be the Statue of Liberty and Ikea.