From left: Lightstone Group Chairman and CEO David Lichtenstein and a rendering of the project (credit: Curbed)

If the Lightstone Group erects its 700-unit rental building at 363-365 Bond Street on the Gowanus Canal, Gowanus Grove, site of the Mister Sunday DJ music parties, will have to relocate, DNAinfo reported.

Gowanus Grove occupies part of the block at 400 Carroll Street and the developer told DNAinfo that the rental, which would include both market-rate and affordable housing, requires the entire block and that Gowanus Grove would need to move. [more]

From left: Lightstone CEO David Lichtenstein and a rendering of Toll Brothers’ plans for the site

Lightstone Group’s ambitious plans to build 700 residential units near the Gowanus Canal, on a site Toll Brothers was reprimanded for trying to develop two years ago by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, has met some resistance (note: correction appended). The New York Post reported that Brooklyn residents met with the developer to voice their concerns. [more]

Joe Sitt and the Revere Sugar Refinery in Red Hook

Suddenly, outlet malls are all the rage in the outer boroughs. Thor Equities President Joe Sitt is considering bringing one to the former Revere Sugar Refinery on the Red Hook waterfront between the Ikea and Fairway stores, according to Crain’s. It follows reports yesterday that BFC Partners made a similar pitch for the parking lots near Richmond County Bank Ballpark in Staten Island and reports last month that the Lightstone Group was planning to bring outlets to the Whitestone Cinema site in Castle Hill. [more]

160 Imlay Street

It appears that the enormous Red Hook, Brooklyn warehouse at 160 Imlay Street will be converted to luxury apartments.

The building, which was slated to be developed during the boom years, before litigation by local residents held it up, has received a variance to become a mixed-use building, Brownstoner reported. [more]

From left: Lightstone CEO David Lichtenstein and a rendering of Toll Brothers' plans for the site

On the same day The Real Deal reported Toll Brothers expressed interest in a trio of Manhattan buildings, Brownstoner reported that one of its old development sites is being examined by another developer. The Bond Street lot off the Gowanus Canal where Toll once planned a more than 600,000-square-foot mixed-use development is now being examined by the Lightstone Group. [more]

Fairway Market in Red Hook

Just two things stand between Red Hook and the large-scale development and gentrification that has taken most of Brooklyn by storm, according to the Wall Street Journal: poor access by public transportation and the area’s M1 zoning that allows only for light manufacturing and industrial use.

Otherwise, as shops and restaurants proliferate and an artist community descends upon the area, development would be sure to follow. [more]

From left: Gregory O'Connell, chief financial officer at the O'Connell Organization, and 480-500 Van Brunt Street

The empty-looking warehouses that line the streets of Red Hook are increasingly being leased and bought for creative uses and the neighborhood, perhaps best known for its Ikea, is becoming an artistic enclave, the New York Post reported.

The O’Connell Organization, which owns 50 properties and 1.3 million square feet in Red Hook, has leased out space to a wedding caterer, Mile End delicatessen’s production facility and two artists residences. Other artist groups pay below-market rates or nothing at all for O’Connell warehouse space. Some old facilities, including the Time Moving and Storage Building at 159 Pioneers Street, are even being bought by artists for exhibition space. [more]

280 Nevins Street

The State Court of Appeals protected a Brooklyn tenant’s right to live rent-free, the New York Times reported. Margaret Maugenest, who stopped paying $600 per month in rent for her artist’s loft at 280 Nevins Street in Gowanus in 2003 because of maintenance and safety issues, was allowed to continue to live in the space despite landlord Chazon LLC’s eviction attempts. [more]

Mirabelle Marden and the exterior and interior of 17 Dikeman Street

Photographer Mirabelle Marden, the former owner of the Lower East Side’s Rivington Arms gallery and the daughter of minimalist artist and downtown “quasi-aristocrat” Brice Marden, is trading her native West Village for the still-undeveloped waterfront in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn. [more]

A rendering of the Whole Foods slated to rise in Gowanus, Brooklyn

Next week, the fate of Whole Foods Market’s first Brooklyn outpost will be largely decided, when two City Council panels vote on whether to grant the variances needed for the project to move forward, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The vacant Coignet building, at the corner of Third Avenue and 3rd Street in the Gowanus neighborhood, is the landmarked building at the center of the debate. The proposed store would wrap around the historic building, and its lot size would need to be decreased in order for construction to begin. [more]