Alloy offers green space as eminent domain alternative

City planned to seize Gowanus sites to build sewage tanks

Alloy's Katherine McConvey and 226 Nevins Street in Gowanus
Alloy's Katherine McConvey and 226 Nevins Street in Gowanus

Dumbo-based Alloy Development is attempt to halt a city plan to seize some of its land in Gowanus in order to build sewage tanks on the site, offering to donate part of the property for use as a green space.

The developer had planned to build a commercial building on the land, at 234 Butler Street and 242 Nevins Street.

The vacant 52,000-square-foot site at 234 Butler, where Alloy holds a 99-year ground lease, has 104,000 square feet of buildable space, according to Massey Knakal.

Alloy is currently in talks to buy the 51,000-square-foot lot at 242 Nevins Streets, which is currently home to a 31,000-square-foot warehouse building.

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“We’re saying we have something simple to offer, which is land,” Alloy co-founder Jared Della Valle told DNAinfo. “What we get out of it is just literally no eminent domain. … We don’t have any other requests.” He added, “We don’t have any motivation other than creating a development opportunity for ourselves.”

Alloy’s proposal would create 138,000 square feet of open space, compared to 185,000 if the properties are seized and the sewage tanks installed. The Environmental Protection Agency, tasked with cleaning up the Superfund site, will make the final decision on whether or not to accept the plan.

In September, a penthouse at Alloy and Monadnock Development’s 1 John Street in Dumbo went into contract for $8.8 million, a Brooklyn record. [DNAinfo] Ariel Stulberg