A Brooklyn-based developer plans to construct a six-story mixed-use building along the Gowanus Canal, which would include both office and retail space, as well as a publicly-accessible walking path adjacent to the fetid waterway, according to recent filings with the city.
Developers with Monadnock Development purchased the site at 300 Huntington St, just steps from the Smith-9th Streets subway station, for $9.5 million in 2017, according to property records.
The new building would stand three stories tall at the waterfront, and rise to six stories at the setback — just 1.5 feet shy of the adjacent Culver Viaduct that houses tracks for the F and G lines near the Carroll Gardens border, according to an Environmental Assessment Statement filed with the Department of City Planning.
The new 101,755 square feet building — which was first reported by New York Yimby — would house ground-floor retail and upper-level offices, while retaining an existing contractor shop and yard. Monadnock will use about 20,000 square feet of the new site and lease the remaining space to tenants.
The currently-vacant lot sits next to a deli and a luncheonette along Ninth Street, and sometimes houses long-term bus storage, according to the filings.
As part of the development, the builders are looking to add a publicly-accessible shore walkway following the edge of the canal bulkhead to Huntington Street, at about 7,550 square feet — roughly the size of one-and-a-half basketball courts.
The site lies in the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Business Zone, and just outside of the city’s planned Gowanus rezoning area, and the developers say their shore path would connect to a potential future waterfront esplanade to the north as part of the neighborhood-wide land use changes. The project timeline is two years, with a completion date set for 2023, according to the filings.
The project is also near the Public Place site the city plans to redevelop into the Gowanus Green affordable housing site at Fifth Street as part of the rezoning.
300 Huntington St. seen from the Smith-Ninth Streets subway station.Monadnock
But before Monadnock can break ground, the proposal will have to go through the city’s lengthy uniform land use review procedure — or ULURP — to get a zoning change for the site.
The developer is seeking a rezoning to get rid of a current requirement to include some 300 parking spaces to the building, which would make it impossible to still have the same amount of office, retail, and open space, according to the documents. The vehicle storage is also not needed due to the proximity of mass transit, the developer argued in the filings.
Reps with Monadnock could not immediately be reached for further comment.
