Now, it won’t be long before the tattooed and the trendy are priced out, leaving room for only the wealthiest New Yorkers. The area is well known today as an infamous haven for hipster youth, but 10 years ago the neighborhood was a quiet, working-class community of Jewish, eastern European, and Hispanic immigrants. The Domino development marks a clear and dramatic manifestation of a contentious transition that’s been taking place in Williamsburg for the last decade. With all these benefits, Two Trees is attempting to pacify a community that is weary of change, and concerned for its future. Two Trees also intends to deliver on the previous developer’s promise of 660 units of “affordable” housing, though the condition was never legally binding.

Street level retail would favor independent business over chain store tenants. The landmarked refinery building would be preserved and converted to office space, and several pieces of machinery would be salvaged for inclusion in a public “artifact walk.” In the face of such monumental changes, this may be of some consolation to New York nostalgics.ĭevelopers are working with the YMCA to establish a community space on the site, and are also proposing a new public school. Some of the structures include open spaces and sky bridges, an innovative solution sought to preserve harbor views for the inland community. The buildings rise higher-up to 60 stories-to allow for more park space, including a one-acre “Domino Square,” where builders envision film screenings and outdoor concerts. The plan is similar in scope to the vision of the CPC, with several key improvements. Unveiled Friday, their monumental plans seem tailor-made to appease the new population of Williamsburg, without limiting profits. Two Trees teamed up with noted NYC firm SHoP Architects-the group is already leaving a lasting impression on the city landscape with the Barclay’s Center and the East River Esplanade. Domino and its predecessors operated on the waterfront for a total of 148 years at its peak, the site employed over 5,000 workers, capable of producing over three million pounds of processed sugar a day. Trust, later reorganized as the American Sugar Refining Co., and branded as Domino Sugar in 1902. Three years later, 17 of the largest sugar refiners in the U.S. The factory’s signature building-a towering redbrick structure that still stands today-was constructed in 1884 to replace an older sugarhouse that had been destroyed in a catastrophic fire. In the late 19th century, Brooklyn was responsible for over half of the country’s sugar production, with Havemeyers & Elders Sugar Company leading the pack of over 20 major refineries that called the borough home. Now, after a decade of false starts, new plans for a modern, mixed use megacomplex may put an end to the decaying colossus that was once the largest refinery in the world, marking the final passage of a working-class Williamsburg. Situated on an eleven-acre parcel of waterfront in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge, the derelict Domino Sugar Refinery remains one of the most recognized monuments of Brooklyn’s rapidly disappearing industrial past. Inside the abandoned Domino Sugar Refinery’s cavernous raw sugar warehouse.

Dominos jobs shuger house