Toby Moskovits’ Heritage Equity Partners will seek a special permit to build a 400,000-square-foot office-centric building on the Williamsburg waterfront, an area that is zoned for manufacturing.
The proposed facility would house about 20 percent light manufacturing, with the rest being office space. The building as a whole would accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 workers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Heritage, which is developing the site with Simon Dushinsky’s Rabsky Group, plans to apply for special permission in the coming weeks, and if the application is accepted, it could set an important precedent for other Williamsburg and Greenpoint manufacturing zones. Debate has been building over how Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration will shape the future of the city’s industrial zones, which are seen as a way to protect well-paying jobs.
Heritage picked up the block-long site at 19 Kent Avenue, between North 12th and 13th streets, for about $30 million in 2012.
“I don’t think anyone is trying to force anyone out. It’s about trying to create new opportunities given the skills that are around us,” Moskovits said. [WSJ] — Tess Hofmann