Luxury Buildings

                 

Tower after tower have sprung up along the “revamped” waterfront in Williamsburg. In 2005, almost two-hundred blocks were rezoned for new apartment towers as well as “a public esplanade and a 28-acre city park.” By 2010, more than 1,000 condo units had been developed along the Williamsburg waterfront, which list at about $1,450 a square foot. Rent prices have skyrocketed: it is “$2,200 to $3,250 a month for studios, $2,800 to $3,700 for one-bedrooms, and $4,200 to $5,800 for two-bedrooms… three-bedroom apartments start in the high $5,000s a month and go up to $8,500 a month” (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/realestate/brooklyn-new-towers-for-williamsburg.html?_r=1).

Many of these new luxury apartment buildings were once warehouses and factories, like the Domino Sugar factory. Over the past decade, the former home of the Domino Sugar factory (a place that formed Williamsburg), has been in the process of redevelopment, since the refinery shut down. In 2012, the site was sold to the Two Trees management company. These luxury apartment will be “taller, there [will be] fewer of them, they [will be] funnier shapes, and there [will be] more open space.”  This luxury development will drive the trend towards super-gentrification that will ultimately lead  to the current residents be driven out due to skyrocketing rents http://www.bkmag.com/2014/02/28/in-williamsburg-a-fight-for-the-future-of-affordable-rents/).

Although these building are going to be luxury apartments, there will be some affordable housing as well. Mayor de Blasio is still not pleased with the plans for this site, though. De Blasio believes that there should not only be more affordable housing, but there should be “more affordable two- and three-bedroom apartments and fewer one-bedrooms and studios, thus accommodating more families.” Single people aren’t the only ones that need affordable housing, families do too. However, according the developers that would be impossible because that would mean “fewer market-rate units, which are what make new parks and affordable housing possible”  (http://www.bkmag.com/2014/02/28/in-williamsburg-a-fight-for-the-future-of-affordable-rents/).  So although there will be affordable houses, about 700 units, these set of  apartment buildings and offices will mainly be occupied by the the rich .