Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management Company threatens to revert to previous plans (pictured above) if the community continues to protest the newer, more extreme development plans

From Brooklyn Paper:

Domino Sugar factory owner Jed Walentas has a backup plan if neighbors don’t like his lofty new vision for the massive waterfront property: go back to the site’s much-maligned previous development blueprint.

Walentas, whose company Two Trees Management Co. bought the shuttered sugar refinery last year, told neighbors he hopes to get the greenlight for his proposal to build skyscraping edifices with eye-catching cutouts in the middle, but if that falls through he will revive the city-approved plan by the past owner Community Preservation Corporation Resources, which call for shorter more monolithic towers.

“We spent $185 million to purchase this site, and we’re going to get a return on our investment,” Walentas said on Thursday in his first meeting with Williamsburgers to discuss the future of Domino.

Neighbors, including many activists who battled the previous Domino development plan, greeted the Two Trees proposal with snark, derision, and anger, criticizing the project for its potential impact on transit, its light-blocking scale, and what they described as Walentas’s “my way or the highway” attitude.

“Maybe you think we are dumb, but we are not DUMBO,” community stalwart Isaac Abraham shouted at the builder, referring to the neighborhood that Walentas and his father David meticulously developed over the past two decades.

Previously, Extreme design for the future of Domino Sugar Factory revealed

From NAG

NAG would like to invite you to a community meeting about the proposed new development at the Domino Sugar Factory. Jed Walentas and the Two Trees team will be walking us through their whole plan, providing you an opportunity to learn about the proposal and get answers to your questions.

Domino Community Forum w/ Two Trees
Thurs March 14th
The Woods – 48 S4th
6-8pm

We are very interested in your input and encourage your attendance at this meeting. Hopefully, you can join us

6-630: Meet, greet, grab a drink, check out the model, say hi to your neighbors. Grab a spot for the powerpoint.
630-715: Domino presentation.
715-8pm: Questions & Discussion

(via Greenpointers)

Domino Sugar Factory may soon be replaced by some bold new buildings on Williamsburg’s waterfront, but you can see inside the factory first thanks to filmmaker Max Touhey. Watch (more…)

Two Trees Management Co. has revealed has revealed its plans for their redevelopment of the Domino Sugar Factory. The bold waterfront designs were crafted by SHoP Architects who were responsible for The Barclay’s Center. From Brooklyn Eagle:

one tower is shaped like a giant zero, another balances apartments atop offices with a hole in the middle, a third features terraced residences stacked along Kent Avenue, and the southernmost edifice is a pair of pencil-thin towers connected by a bridge that could become Brooklyn’s tallest structure at 598 feet and 55 stories.

These dramatic alterations, including a request to build 20 stories taller than the previous owners Community Preservation Corporation Resources, will force Two Trees to take the project through the city’s approval process for a second time.

Tallest building in Brooklyn? Number shaped structures on the waterfront? This is a lot to process, but it sounds like there’s still an awful lot that needs to happen before this becomes a reality. Read more at Brooklyn Eagle.

- @joshmorrissey

In October of this year Two Trees Management Co. successfully purchased the iconic sugar factory for $185 million. Get an inside look at one of the most fascinating places in Brooklyn before its gutted, polished up and dwarfed by 40-story glass towers on all sides.

Via Gothamist:

Brooklyn mega-developer Two Trees, which owns much of DUMBO, is poised to put down deeper roots on the Williamsburg Waterfront, where the big old Domino Sugar refinery awaits the developer’s gentrifying magic touch. The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), which tried and failed to transform the old refinery into a large mixed-use residential and retail development, has closed on a deal to sell the property to Two Trees for $185 million…

The original plans for the development were ambitious and somewhat controversial—some locals worried about another huge influx of Williamsburg residents overwhelming public transportation (the Bedford L stop is already a shitshow at rush hour). The mixed-use 2,200-unit development was supposed to have 660 units of affordable housing, but Two Trees owner Jed Walentas—who also owns The Wythe Hotel—has not committed to that ratio of affordable-to-obscenely expensive. In fact, Two Trees’ plans for the property are still very much TBD.

CPC’s promise of 30 percent affordable housing was never legally binding, but CPC would have taken advantage of the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program, requiring it to set aside 20% of the units at “affordable” below-market rates. In an interview with the Observer in June, Walentas said, “Regardless of what the deal was with the previous people, it’s been several years and nothing’s gotten built. One of the biggest challenges is to make something happen. I do think affordable housing will be at the top of the list, but there’s a wide array of social benefits this project can offer, from schools to open space to community space.”

From The Brooklyn Paper

The developers purchased the site in 2004 for $55.8 million, according to city records, and nearly sold it to 15 investors for $200 million in December before the deal fell through after some backers got skittish about the project’s finances and zoning variances, Kalmon Dolgin senior director Bob Klein said.

“You have to be a big player to tackle Domino,” said Klein. “They were going to break it up into partnerships but it fell apart.”

Susan Pollock, vice president of the developers, did not deny that the project — once slated to be worth between $1.2 billion and $2 billion when completed — is on the market.

“We are pursuing various options that will achieve our goals— to realize value for ourselves and our partners and to insure that development is consistent with all project entitlements,” said Pollack, who previously acknowledged her company was seeking more investors to help get the project underway.

The developer’s Williamsburg allies insist that Community Preservation Corporation Resources is not walking away from the project — citing the recent hiring of new CEO Rafael Cestero, former head of the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation Development. (more…)