Whole Foods is on!

The intersection of 3rd and 3rd will no longer have just one attraction; sounds like the Whole Foods project is back on! In an e-mail to Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman, Mark Mobley from Whole Food wrote the following:

"Our property, which was formerly home to a number of auto repair shops, warehouses and other industrial uses, has now been fully cleaned and remediated under the strict guidelines of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's brownfield program and is ready to return to a positive, productive, job-creating and community service use.

Our planned new store will be approx. 52,000 square feet, which is about 25% smaller than the store we had previously proposed for this site. We believe this site plan - which continues to feature a 40 foot public esplanade for our neighbors to enjoy - will simply work better within the parameters of the property.

We have reduced the number of parking spaces on-site from 430 to 248, which eliminates our previous need for a separate parking structure and allows all of the parking to be at-grade in a surface parking lot. The store will feature parking for both energy efficient vehicles as well as specially designated recharging stations for electric powered vehicles. The lot will also include bike parking in front of the store and along the promenade. Whole Foods Market will also offer delivery for area residents.

With parking now no longer needed on the store roof either, we have been presented with the opportunity to include one of the most exciting and innovative features ever included in a Whole Foods Market: A 20,000 square foot greenhouse located on the roof of the store that will grow fresh, organic produce right on-site!

Rather than construct the store below-grade as previously proposed, we now plan to build it above-grade, which will require a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals due to the physical hardships associated with site development (there is a high water table and, as you know, environmental cleanup requirements on the property). These factors have a large impact on the development costs that will be encountered on this site.

As always planned, the two-story, 19th century brick building situated at the property's corner at Third Avenue and Third Street - which is not owned by Whole Foods Market - will remain in place. The Whole Foods Market will "jog" around the existing building at that corner and Whole Foods has committed to investing in improvements to the building that will include a new roof and exterior repairs. "


Lets hope that this doesn't exacerbate the nightmare that is traffic on 3rd Street at times, but the reduction in parking spaces and 40 foot waterfront access is a great thing!

Staubitz!

One of the last real butchers in the area, John McFadden from Staubitz, got profiled in the New York Times:

"Favorite meat: A thick, juicy rib steak. But I only eat red meat once a week. I’ve got high cholesterol; it’s hereditary.

Manual dexterity: I must enjoy working with my hands, because in my workshop upstate in Milan, I’m always out there building all sorts of things from wood. Now I’m restoring portions of a 1730 barn.

The next generation: This is kind of funny. The other day my son asked me if he could work in the store when he gets old enough. I said, “Of course you can.”"

My uncle was the bicycle delivery boy for Staubitz in the 50s, and has some great stories about the meat market in those days!

Progress for Community Board 6

Turns out that sometimes, Community Board 6 CAN make a progressive decision. From Streetsblog:

"Last night, the committee voted in favor of expanding the Park Smart area and the time that peak hour rates are in effect. The resolution did not touch on increasing the peak meter rate to $2.25 per hour but rejected the idea of extending the time limit at curbside spaces from one hour to two hours...

The interesting exchange of the evening happened when one committee member raised the prospect of extending the time limit from one hour to two hours.

Extending the time limits could wipe out the gains that the higher peak hour rates have achieved, explained DOT Deputy Commissioner Bruce Schaller. “The combination of the rate and one-hour time limit is affecting turnover,” he said. “If you relax one of them, you have to make up for it with the other.”"

Columbia Street Waterfront District Gets Some Love

The Columbia Street Waterfront District, the ex-Red Hook, ex-Carroll Gardens hanging chad, has gotten some love from the NY Times:


"A slice of about two dozen square blocks, cut off from the rest of the borough by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Columbia waterfront has been seen as an up-and-coming neighborhood. But development has come in fits and starts because of its location, the forbidding warehouses and piers that block harbor access, and a lack of subway lines.

“This particular location — we’ve liked it since Day 1,” said Louis V. Greco, the general manager of the development company SDS, which bought two parcels in the neighborhood in 2008. “That’s because of the views of Lower Manhattan, obviously, and there’s just so much going on down there now.""

Brooklyn's Park Avenue: Walkabouts and Subway Improvements! And Evil Developers?

Recently, some money was found for the 4th Avenue/9th Street Subway Station rehab. From the Brooklyn Paper:

"The Beep said this week that he has set aside $2 million for improvements in and around the station, which critics say shares the same aesthetic of a Turkish prison.

“This $2 million will showcase the potential to create safer conditions all along this roadway and make it a beautiful thoroughfare that better serves us,” he said.

The station — once targeted for a grand facelift as part of the $250-million reconstruction of the elevated tracks between the Carroll Street and Fourth Avenue — has been in limbo since MTA budget cuts delayed the lofty plan."

Seems that the Park Slope Civic Council agrees that the rehab will be in the best interests of safety and aesthetics as well. Unfortunately, they can't do that without whining about development. From the Brooklyn Eagle:

"A renovation would eliminate thousands of pedestrian trips across Fourth Avenue, one of the city’s most dangerous streets. Earlier this year, the NYC Transit Authority estimated that a renovation would cost about $3.5 million, according to Cairl. The Brooklyn Paper recently reported that Borough President Marty Markowitz is willing to use about $2 million of his office’s capital budget.

While there may be money for rehabilitating subway stations, several development projects have stalled on the corridor because of the credit crunch. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, at least for the time being, Cairl said. Most recent development on the corridor left neighborhood advocates wanting something better. Citing ugly design and structures too often out of scale with the surrounding community, the Park Slope Civic Council would like developers to take a more organic approach.

“New development is great but it needs to relate to the community,” said Cairl, citing the “unfriendly street presence” of so many buildings. “You can’t just sit at a drafting table and not come and walk the ground.” S.J. Avery joined the council because she perceived that type of development insensitivity, but it originated from city government, she said, noting that the way the city handled the eventual condemnation of historic P.S. 133 upset her so much that she had to get involved."

A more appropriate villain than "developers" might be the high-density zoning that has been a failure. Until the City changes the zoning codes to allow a great mix of uses within the high-density FAR, and does something to slow down traffic on 4th, there will be no streetscape to speak of.

The City and Phoenix Beverage: Kind of Keeping Their Word?

We covered the spat between Columbia Street residents and Phoenix Beverage, the EDC's newest tenant (and, from a logistical perspective, the perfect tenant). Basically, Phoenix and the City were exposed as big, fat liars. According to the Brooklyn Paper, they are now keeping their word, but under the guise of a "compromise". Between this and Joan Millman's bike land compromise, Noah Webster must be spinning in his grave.

"Eventually, Teamsters, bosses from Phoenix Beverages, local pols and residents reached a compromise in which the trucks would bypass Columbia Street by driving on the BQE between Hamilton to Atlantic avenues.

“We’re extraordinarily happy,” said Brian McCormick, a member of the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association. “The trucks are pretty much gone. There is a system in place that is working, and we’re hoping that will continue.”

The trucks are expected to continue cruising on the BQE until the chronically delayed reconstruction of Van Brunt Street is completed, opening up the proper truck route from Degraw Street to Hamilton Avenue (officials say the work could be done next summer)."

Make no mistake; this is anything BUT a compromise. This was community leaders forcing a private company (with an EDC lease) to adhere to the stipulations that they had agreed upon. 

I was at those meetings and voted on the deal. The use of the BQE was a MAJOR point of Phoenix and EDC's pitch.

GaGa in CaGa?

According to Gothamist we may need to lock our windows and our doors, cause Lady GaGa be stealin' boyfriends from everybody up in here:

"Allegedly Gaga showed up at the couple's Carroll Gardens apartment, and begged her former fling to come back. He agreed, and next thing you know the two are drunk at a Mets game together."

Be on the lookout for idiotic outfits on Court Street?

LICH Remains Open, for now

Some state funding and a quasi-merger have kept LICH open, for now. From the NY Times:

"Long Island College Hospital, known as LICH, has been at risk of closing since at least 2008, when its parent company, Continuum Health Partners, announced that the hospital was straining under the weight of $170 million in capital debt and proposed to shut down its maternity and pediatric operations. The State Health Department denied Continuum’s 2008 plan to close maternity and pediatric operations, leading to the search for a partner.

Governor Paterson said Thursday that the state would provide $40 million to support the merger. In 2009 the state gave LICH $22 million to help stabilize itself and to make it more attractive to a prospective partner."

Let's hope that that money got allocated, or that Cuomo will honor the deal.

Gowanus Canal