The deal the City Planning Commission struck with Two Trees Management to redevelop the Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn is being declared a win for the city — and real estate interests, too.
Last week the commission gave Two Trees the nod to construct a 2.9 million-square-foot retail, commercial and residential complex at the waterfront landmarked 292-314 Kent Avenue — as long as the developer dedicates 537,000 square feet of the project to affordable housing, as The Real Deal previously reported.
The now-earmarked space is higher in square footage than Two Tree’s original proposal, by 7 percent, or 60 units. But the modest increase may reveal flexibility in the de Blasio administration’s affordable housing initiative, Crain’s reported. Mitch Korbey, a land-use attorney and partner at property law firm Herrick Feinstein, hailed the city in the compromise.
“I think our clients will look at this as an example of an administration anxious to have a dialogue,” Korbey told Crain’s. The city’s willingness to negotiate with developers will be clearer when the results of a comprehensive study of land-use policy in New York City are released at the start of May, Crain’s reported. [Crain’s ] — Angela Hunt