Historical Chronology, 1642 - 2000
Post-War Decline, and Rebirth
1959: The Jay Street Connecting Railroad
ceases to operate.
1963: Consolidated Edison purchased the
Empire Stores.
1967-69: The Empire Stores site is proposed
for a wholesale meat market. Local opposition is so vehement
that the idea is abandoned.
1971-72: Plans are announced to convert
the Empire Stores to a festival marketplace.
1974: The Fulton Landing area, including
the Empire Stores, is placed on the National Register of Historic
Places.
1977: The Fulton Ferry Historic District
is designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
1978: The New York State Department of
Parks and Recreation purchases the nine-acre Empire Stores
site from Consolidated Edison.
|
DUMBO 1999
The signature architectural
proposal of the Two Trees plan is a 250 room waterfront
hotel designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. The
following excerpts are taken from Nouvel's description
of the hotel:
"In fairy tales
the wicked witch keeps the princess from seeing herself
in a mirror, which is the only way she can discover
her real beauty. Admiring one's image, being confident
of one's looks was such a pleasure that it was equated
with sin. What we have here is a golden opportunity
to reach out a Narcissus mirror to Manhattan: look at
yourself, and love it!
"The fact is
the river hotel is a bridge between two bridges: a place
for looking at the City's bridges the way you see them
from a ship. It obeys the strict logic of New York's
piers and holds to the urban grid that runs right down
to the water. It stretches its front to the utmost,
going onto the river as if to reach over to the other
side -- the symbolic gesture of a pier that belongs
to Manhattan as much as to Brooklyn."
-- Two Trees Management
Co., "A Plan for the D.U.M.B.O. Waterfront"
|
1979: The Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park
is created.
1982: Two Trees Management Company, led
by developer David Walentas, purchases nine DUMBO buildings
for $16.5 million. By the end of the year, Walentas owns approximately
2.5 million square feet in DUMBO.
1984: Walentas receives conditional designation
by New York City and New York State to redevelop the (now
State-owned) Empire Stores, along with a number of city-owned
sites in DUMBO. Walentas proposes a massive commercial and
residential redevelopment plan for the area. The plan is plagued
by political problems and, after 1987's stock market crash,
a depressed real estate market.
1989: The Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition
is founded to design and advocate a new park along the Brooklyn
Heights and DUMBO waterfront.
1997: The Downtown Brooklyn Water-front
Local Development Corporation is formed to study the redevelopment
of the Brooklyn Heights waterfront. The waterfront area between
the bridges is excluded from the LDC's jurisdiction as a concession
to Two Trees Management. The State Office of Parks, Recreation
and Historic Preservation issues a request for proposals on
the redevelopment of Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park. Two Trees
Management is the only respondent.
1998: Two Trees Management receives a
contract from the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic
Preservation designating Two Trees Management the developer
of Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park.
1999: Two Trees Management releases a
$300 million development plan for Fulton Ferry Landing, DUMBO,
and parts of Vinegar Hill (east of the Manhattan Bridge).
The plan, which redesigns Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park,
includes about 375,000 square feet of retail development,
a 250 room hotel, a waterfront marina, a cinamaplex, and nearly
2000 new parking spaces. The plan faces opposition from the
DUMBO Neighborhood Association, the Fulton Ferry Landing Association,
The Vinegar Hill Association, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition
and Community Board 2. The plan is strongly supported by New
York City and State. The State Office of Parks, Recreation
and Historic Preservation announces that it will demolish
the Tobacco Warehouse.
1999-2000: New York City and State withdraw
support of the Two Trees proposal. The Brooklyn Bridge Park
Development Corporation initiates planning process encompassing
waterfront property from Brooklyn Heights to Vinegar Hill.
Source: Beyer Blinder
Belle, Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park Feasibility Study, 1990
|
