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From left: BSA chairwoman Margery Perlmutter, developer Alexandros Washburn, New York City Council member Carlos Menchaca and a rendering of the project (Photos via the City of New York, LinkedIn and Arquitectonica)
Developers can’t go through Carlos Menchaca, but they can go around him.
The Brooklyn City Council member last year killed a major rezoning in his district and tried to stop one in someone else’s. Now, a builder is steering a $200 million Red Hook project to an agency where Menchaca has no vote.
The proposal for 145 Wolcott Street includes 210 apartments 61 of them affordable in a manufacturing zone, so it needs either new zoning from the City Council or a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals.
Alexandros Washburn, the former chief planner for the City
of New York who now leads Brooklyn-based design firm DRAW Brooklyn, has
unveiled a plan to build a mixed used housing and manufacturing development in
Red Hook.
Called the Model Block, the plan aims to transform a vacant warehouse at 145 Wolcott Street into a 210-unit apartment complex with 65,675 s/f of light manufacturing space and 74,325 s/f of commercial space including restaurant, shops, maker space and creative office space.
ALEXANDROS WASHBURN
Washburn has partnered with Washington D.C.-based development firm Four Points, LLC on the project. He also worked with architects Arquitectonica, AE Superlab and Marpillero Pollak Architects on the design, which he has already shown to hundreds of local residents and community groups as part of an ambitious outreach to secure support.