From the NY Times:Though there are plenty of start-ups that favor Williamsburg and Greenpoint, developers, local officials and real estate brokers say there is a dearth of office space. Most landlords, lured by the promise of building lucrative apartments in the increasingly popular residential area, are reluctant to devote space to commercial tenants who can pay little and might wither as quickly as they bloom.
For some longtime residents and younger champions of north Brooklyn, the shortage raises the specter of a creative, economically diverse neighborhood turning into just another bedroom community. Will entrepreneurs follow the lead of Kickstarter, which is renovating an old factory in Greenpoint to serve as its long-term headquarters, or will the area’s booming residential market squeeze out everything but wealthy commuters?
Part of the problem is zoning: though parts of Williamsburg and Greenpoint are zoned for mixed commercial and residential use, the zoning tilts residential. The bigger issue is supply, or as developers might see it, demand.
...it was not uncommon for the owners of old factories or warehouses — the kind of industrial building every developer wants — to refuse to sell because they are holding out for their properties to be rezoned for residential use.
3 comments:
I've suggested many times in the past--once at a community board 7 public hearing--a name change to the "Department of City Plotting".
Isn't that what this department is really good at?
I was immediately chastised by CB7s leaders for speaking the truth.
Meanwhile the EDC and City Planning have come up with the Industrial Business Zone concept - designed to assure owners their properties will not be rezoned after they commit $ to industrial use - which is NOT offices, BTW. Of course, this is also used to encourage companies to move out out of areas that are in the process of turning into hipster havens.
This Industrial Business Zone concept is just some more EDC horse shit! After it's created, anything and everyone will move on in.
i.e.
The College Point Corporate Park has a huge Korean Church located within it. It's not supposed to be there. It isn't allowed to be so under law.
It's there illegally...against the original purpose that the EDC had in mind for the corporate park.
Does anyone in CB#7 give a damn?
Do any of our elected officials care?
Of course not! Why should they?
In this particular case, nobody wants to offend the Asians...who have bribed them with favors and showered them with political campaign contributions.
Here comes another, but different, screw job in the making!
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