Developers of the Domino Sugar Refinery site on the Williamsburg waterfront welcomed press to the site this morning to hype their development plan, which calls for 2,200 apartment and the preservation of the original refinery building. Tragically, no new renderings of architect Rafael Viñoly's towering towers (above) were shown, nor did Viñoly himself deign to make an appearance (an underling from his office showed in his stead). A few new details were revealed, however. Timeline-wise, developers hope for land use review by this fall or early winter, with groundbreaking slated for late 2008 or early 2009. The project, budgeted at a mind-boggling $1.2-$1.3 billion, will take six to eight years to build out, with work proceeding from the south end to the north end of the site. Also of interest: the 11.2 acre site will feature four acres of open space, and 120,000 square feet of retail space—including some sort of food store. About 100,000 square feet will be set aside for community use. Yay, art!
Finally, on the preservation front, turns out megatecht firm Beyer Blinder Belle will be the architect of record for the refinery building preservation. And as to the Domino Sugar sign, developers confirmed that they're looking at ways to save it, even though they plan to tear down the Sugar Box building on which it hangs. (We're expecting it to grace the waterfront like the Pepsi-Cola signage at QueensWest a little ways north in Long Island City.) And stay tuned: we'll have photos from the tour, snapped by Curbed's Brooklyn editor Robert Guskind, later today.
· Scope Plan for the 'New Domino' Revealed [Curbed]
· Landmarking Progress Details on Williamsburg's 'New Domino' [Curbed]
· Domino Sugar Sign Could be Saved [Brooklyn Paper]