Gowanus Canal

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized its Gowanus Canal cleanup proposal and, as Gothamist noted, the plan includes a controversial measure that is pitting Red Hook against its neighbors. The EPA has signed off on a plan envisioned by developer John Quadrozzi to convert canal sludge into concrete blocks that would be assembled off the coast of Red Hook, near a number of housing projects. [more]

David Lichtenstein and a project rendering

The City Planning Commission yesterday approved Lightstone Group’s plan to build a 700-unit rental development at 363-365 Bond Street on the Gowanus Canal, the developer said. The agency granted Lightstone permission to build on an as-of-right basis, finding the project complied with a 2009 rezoning of the area. Lightstone had previously proposed a modification to the plan, prompting several groups to question whether a more stringent review process was necessary. [more]

The Gowanus Canal

Even after the cleanup of the Gowanus Canal, the waters still won’t be safe enough for swimming or fishing. Last night, the public got a glimpse of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed cleaning plan for the polluted canal, which is slated to cost approximately $500 million and will be finished around 2022, DNAinfo reported. [more]

Gowanus Canal

Cleaning the polluted Gowanus Canal is estimated to cost between $467 million to $504 million, the New York Times reported. The proposed clean-up plan involves splitting the canal into three sections: In two heavily polluted sections, crews will dredge the canal floor, mixing it with concrete and then topping it with gravel, sand and clay layers. The third portion would be similarly dug and then topped with a layer of sand. [more]

Red Hook Recreation Center

The Red Hook Recreation Center in Brooklyn’s storm-battered Red Hook neighborhood, has reopened nearly two months after Hurricane Sandy made landfall, NY1 reported. The surge filled the property’s basement with water, ushering in two months of repairs to get the building, located at 155 Bay Street, back on its feet. [more]

202 Coffey Street (credit: PropertyShark)

Milan developer Estate4 has purchased a 130,000-square-foot factory space in Red Hook for $11.8 million, the Commercial Observer reported. Led by developer and urban planner Alessandro Cajrati Crivelli, the company will work with architecture firm Adjmi & Andreoli to transform the space into a photography school and series of artist studios.

“We fell in love with the structure inside, which is reminiscent of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice,” Aldo Andreoli of Adjmi & Andreoli told the Observer, referring to the building, located at 202 Coffey Street on the corner of Ferris Street. “As architects we are excited to touch such a beautiful building.” [more]

The potential Gowanus school site (credit: Brownstoner)

To ease overcrowding in Park Slope’s public elementary schools, the city is currently scoping out a space for a new Brooklyn public school. But the vacant lot being considered may be a historic graveyard, Brownstoner reported.

Located between 8th and 9th streets, off Third Avenue, in Gowanus, the site is thought by some to be the burial site for First Maryland Regiment soldiers who died in the Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War. [more]

Brooklyn Whole Foods rendering (credit: Brownstoner)

The Gowanus Whole Foods will open in the fall of 2013, according to a memo the grocery store chain sent to Community Board 6, Brownstoner and others reported. Other details include that ground work on the foundation is set to begin this season and that the steel frame of the 52,000-square-foot store will rise early next year.

But this isn’t the only change that’s slated to come to the site, which is located at 3rd Street and Third Avenue. [more]

Michelle Inciarrano and Katy Maslow, owners of Twig Terraniums (credit: WNYC)

Gowanus’ retail profile has been on the rise since a Canal clean-up project and a forthcoming Whole Foods were announced. Many of the new retailers are women, according to DNAinfo, which counts at least 25 new women-owned businesses in the last four years, including the movie prop recycling store Film Biz Recycling, the Twig Terraniums, the eco-friendly cleaners The Green Neat Team, and the headquarters of the dried fruit-snack Peeled Snacks.

As landlords convert former factories into lofts, many of these women are being attracted by low rents and a convenient location nestled in between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, sources say. [more]

280 Richards Street

Brooklyn Nets officials are giving Red Hook a once over, as they scout locations for a new practice facility, Crain’s reported. For over a year the team has been hunting for a Brooklyn site, but at least through the next season, practice will continue at the Nets Center in East Rutherford, N.J, which they lease through that time frame.

The Nets have said they hope to have a practice facility in the borough for the start of the 2013-2014 season. Their complex in New Jersey has two basketball courts, a treatment center, a workout facility, a locker room, a video theater and 32,000 square feet of offices. [more]