Lightstone interested in developing Toll Brothers’ abandoned Gowanus Canal 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.

Though ownership of the property hasn’t been transferred, Lightstone has approached the Department of City Planning seeking a minor modification to Toll Brothers’ original plan that would alter the arrangement of the affordable units within the zoning variances the original developer already secured, a spokesperson for Lightstone told The Real Deal (note: correction appended).

Toll had laid plans for 460 condominium and townhouses after cleaning the Gowanus Canal, but abandoned the project when the waterway earned Superfund status in 2010. An investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency later found that Toll had underestimated the scope of the contamination of the canal. But the Lightstone spokesperson said that its proposal is unrelated to the potentially decade-long clean-up process and could even break ground by 2013, pending City Planning approval (note: correction appended).

Lightstone Group is also planning to bring the city’s first outlet mall to the Whitestone Cinemas site it purchased earlier this year for $30 million. [Brownstoner]