Domino Sugar Refinery
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The Domino Sugar Refinery is a
mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...
and former
sugar refinery A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or beets into white refined sugar. Many cane sugar mills produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it more colour (and impurities) than the white ...
in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, along the
East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...
. When active as a refinery, it was operated by the Havemeyer family's
American Sugar Refining Company American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
, which produced Domino brand sugar and was one of several sugar factories on the East River in northern Brooklyn. The family's first refinery in Williamsburg opened in 1856 and was operated by Frederick C. Havemeyer Jr., the son of American Sugar's founder. After a fire destroyed the original structures, the current complex was built in 1882 by
Theodore A. Havemeyer Theodore Augustus Havemeyer (May 17, 1839 – April 26, 1897) was an American businessman who was the first president of the U.S. Golf Association and co-founder of the Newport Country Club, host to both the first U.S. Amateur and the first U.S. ...
, Thomas Winslow, and J. E. James. The American Sugar Refining Company grew to control most of the sugar industry in the United States by the late 19th century, with the Brooklyn refinery as its largest plant. Many different types of sugar were refined at the facility, and it employed up to 4,500 workers at its peak in 1919. Demand started to decline in the 1920s with advances in sugar refining and the construction of other facilities, but the refinery continued to operate until 2004. In the early 21st century, the refinery was redeveloped as office space, residential towers, and parkland. The complex's filter, pan, and finishing house was made a
New York City designated landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 2007, because of its historical significance as one of several industrial concerns on Brooklyn's waterfront. After the failure of an initial redevelopment proposal by CPC Resources,
SHoP Architects SHoP Architects is an architecture firm in Lower Manhattan, New York City, with projects located on five continents. Led by four principals, the firm provides services to residences, commercial buildings, schools and cultural institutions, as wel ...
proposed another design in 2013, which was approved the next year. Demolition of the non-landmark structures in the refinery began shortly afterward, and the first new tower in the development project opened in 2017. , the refinery redevelopment consists of three completed towers; the Filter, Pan, and Finishing House; and a waterside park called
Domino Park Domino Park is a public park in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It spans a quarter mile along the East River near the Williamsburg Bridge, at the Domino Sugar Refinery site. Along the five-block riverside walk, variou ...
.


Refinery

The industrial waterfront of Brooklyn was developed in the 19th century with the construction of major shipping hubs such as Red Hook's Atlantic Basin, the
Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...
, and
Industry City Industry City (also Bush Terminal) is a historic intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex on the Upper New York Bay waterfront in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The northern portion, commonly cal ...
. The village of Williamsburgh in northern Brooklyn was incorporated on the bank of the
East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...
in 1827, with most of the commercial enterprises located on the waterfront, and after becoming a part of the city of Brooklyn in 1855, Williamsburg grew quickly. German-born cousins Frederick C. Havemeyer and William Havemeyer, of the Havemeyer family, had established their first sugar refinery on Vandam Street in modern-day
Hudson Square Hudson Square is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by Clarkson Street to the north, Canal Street to the south, Varick Street to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. To the north of the neig ...
, Manhattan, in 1807. The original refinery occupied a lot of , but by the 1840s it had expanded to ten stories and occupied the whole
city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
. Frederick C. Havemeyer Jr. (1807–1891), who joined the Havemeyer family business in 1823, helped the operation grow into a large sugar-refining corporation.


Original facility

The first member of the Havemeyer family to open a facility in Williamsburg was John C. Havemeyer, Frederick Jr.'s nephew. At the end of 1856, John C. Havemeyer and Charles E. Bertrand co-founded Havemeyer & Bertrand at the intersection of modern-day Kent Avenue and South 3rd Street. The firm assumed the name Havemeyer, Townsend & Company in 1858, then Havemeyer & Elder in 1863. The refinery employed several Havemeyer family members, including
Theodore Theodore may refer to: Places * Theodore, Alabama, United States * Theodore, Australian Capital Territory * Theodore, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Banana, Australia * Theodore, Saskatchewan, Canada * Theodore Reservoir, a lake in Sask ...
,
Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
,
Hector In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
, and
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
, the latter two of whom later formed their own refinery. The Havemeyer & Elder refinery, also called the Yellow Sugar House, was the largest of the Havemeyer family plants. According to sketches, the complex included a five-story building, two single-story buildings, and a standalone chimney. During 1863 and 1865, the Havemeyers bought two lots between South 2nd and South 4th streets for expansion of the facility. Several other refineries were subsequently built in Williamsburg, creating the world's largest sugar-refining center at that time. By 1870, the neighborhood produced a majority of sugar used within the United States, and by 1881, the Havemeyer refinery processed about three-fourths of all refined sugar in the nation. Because of the depth of the East River in the vicinity of the refinery, shipments of raw sugar from overseas could be loaded directly into the facility. In February 1881, Havemeyer & Elder received a permit from the City of Brooklyn's Bureau of Buildings to add three stories to an existing six-story building on Kent Avenue between South 4th and South 5th streets. That November, Havemeyer & Elder acquired an adjacent parcel, which had previously been leased to rival refiners Wintjen, Dick and Harms. The same month, Theodore Havemeyer submitted plans for a ten-story brick structure, likely a new filter house, to the Bureau of Buildings.


Reconstruction

Construction on the new filter house was underway when the original refinery burned down on January 8, 1882, destroying the structures between South 3rd and South 4th streets. The fire destroyed several warehouses as well as the building that contained the refinery and finishing house. It caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage, though
insurance policies In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract (generally a standard form contract) between the insurer and the policyholder, which determines the claims which the insurer is legally required to pay. In exchange for an initial payment, known as ...
covered about half of the losses, and resulted in the elimination of 1,200 to 2,000 jobs. Its destruction resulted in an increase in sugar prices nationwide. In February 1882, Theodore Havemeyer purchased a refinery in
Red Hook, Brooklyn Red Hook is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, New York, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. It is located on a peninsula projecting into the Upper New York Bay and is bounded by the Gowanus Expressway and the Car ...
, so that operations could restart while the new refinery was being erected. The next month, Havemeyer & Elder submitted plans for a new fireproof pan and finishing house measuring to the Bureau of Buildings. According to the ''
Brooklyn Daily Eagle :''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently'' The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...
'', Theodore Havemeyer supervised the new structures' construction. Two people were variously cited as being the contractor: a building application in November 1881 mentions Thomas Winslow and J. E. James as the builders, while a subsequent application in March 1882 states that Havemeyer and James were co-architects. The rebuilding was funded in part by insurance money and the sale of assets. The reconstruction was reported to be completed by July 1883. In total, work cost $7 million (equal to $ million in ).


Operations

The new refinery structure gave the Havemeyer family a large
competitive advantage In business, a competitive advantage is an attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors. A competitive advantage may include access to natural resources, such as high-grade ores or a low-cost power source, highly skilled ...
due to its size, and by 1884, the rebuilt plant employed 1,000 men who made 5,000 barrels of sugar daily. The family created the Sugar Refineries Company or Sugar Trust in late 1887. The Sugar Trust was reorganized into the
American Sugar Refining Company American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
in 1891 after the previous year's passage of the
Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. Th ...
; prior to reorganization, the trust had controlled 98% of the United States' sugar production. An account of the plant's operation in 1894 stated that the plant was "the largest of its kind in the world" with seven buildings on of land; the refinery employed 3,000 workers and utilized of coal a day, producing 13,000 barrels of sugar daily. In 1896, American Sugar became one of the original twelve companies in the
Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...
. The company continued to prosper despite further antitrust legislation, and Frederick's son
Henry O. Havemeyer Henry Osborne Havemeyer (October 18, 1847 – December 4, 1907) was an American industrialist, entrepreneur and sugar refiner who founded and became president of the American Sugar Refining Company in 1891. Havemeyer was the third generation of h ...
renamed the company "Domino’s Sugar" in the early 1900s. Many different types of sugar were refined at the facility. Raw sugar was shipped from forty countries and from Florida. Raw sugar was first unloaded from piers along the East River, and mixed with water within the filter house. Then, the mixture was strained, pumped to the thirteenth floor, and placed into , circular vats called "blow-ups". Fifty pipes transported the mixture upward. Afterward, the mixture was filtered through " bone black" and
canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...
layers into circular tanks that measured tall and across. The solution then went into the pan house, where it was boiled at in vacuum pans that measured tall and across. Subsequently, the mixture was sent through
centrifuge A centrifuge is a device that uses centrifugal force to separate various components of a fluid. This is achieved by spinning the fluid at high speed within a container, thereby separating fluids of different densities (e.g. cream from milk) or ...
s, where it was separated into sugar and molasses. The sugar grains were then taken to the finishing house, where they were separated in granulating machines and then roasted and dried. The roasting and drying process produced either retail-ready products such as cubes, tablets, and syrups, or individual grains that could be used as ingredients in other processes. The sugar products were packed into barrels, which were stored in the warehouses nearby. The work conditions at the refinery were described as onerous, and the workers were poorly paid, despite working shifts of at least ten hours per day. When the refinery was founded, almost all of the workers were German immigrants, while Irish immigrants were hired as outdoor laborers. Later immigrants came from
eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...
, northern, and
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, as well as the
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. Workers were paid a starting salary of between $1.12 and $1.50 per day (equivalent to between $ and $ in ), with 5- or 10-cent pay increases according to tenure. The highest-paid workers at the plant earned between $100 and $150 a month (equivalent to between $ and $ in ). According to a 1900 ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' article, workers were employed for at least eight years on average, and many workers either lived near Kent Avenue or took trolley lines to the refinery. Most laborers at that time lived in boarding houses, though the refinery did have lockers and showers in its basement. Workers were prone to being fired at times of job insecurity, although conditions improved in the early 20th century, when wages were increased and some workers received pensions. Most employees were men, but by 1920, about one of ten workers were women.


Later usage


Early 20th century

American Sugar established the East River Terminal Railroad in 1907 to transport sugar between the refinery and the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, immediately to the north of the sugar refinery. American Sugar believed the refinery to be so fireproof that it did not need insurance. In 1917, during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, an explosion destroyed part of the plant, killing between six and twelve workers. A crowd of more than 15,000 people gathered to watch the plant burn. Initially, there was serious concern that the explosion was the work of German agents, because the Germans were the United States' adversary in the war, but the ultimate cause was found to be the ignition of sugar grains in the refinery's machinery. By 1919, the refinery had over 4,500 paid employees. The company took ownership of a pier at the end of Grand Street, one block north of the refinery, the same year. American Sugar also proposed closing the five short dead-end streets between Grand and South Fifth streets, in order to have full control of the land that comprised the refinery, but withdrew its application following local opposition. American Sugar proposed closing the five streets again in 1923, but this was also opposed by the local population. The company then threatened to move to New Jersey in 1924 over the failure to close the dead-end streets. At the time, the plant had an annual payroll of $3.5 million and manufactured of sugar per year. The New York City government allowed the company to close streets in front of the refinery. In 1926, American Sugar commenced a large renovation of the plant. As part of the project, the dock was replaced with a bulkhead, and a new boiler house was erected, as well as a warehouse that could store of sugar. The renovation was completed in 1927. The upgrades had cost $3 million and resulted in increased efficiency in the refinery's operations. Around this time, a large sign with yellow letters spelling "Domino Sugar" was erected on one of the refinery's buildings, facing the East River. By American Sugar's 50th anniversary in 1941, the refinery produced 60 grades of sugars and was a significant source of income to the municipal governments and surrounding community. It was estimated that from 1912 to 1941, the factory paid $156 million in wages, $4 million in taxes, and $2 million for water; accepted sugar from 2,252 ships; and used of coal and 17,537 barrels of oil. The '' Brooklyn Citizen'' said in 1941 that the refinery made Brooklyn the center of sugar refining in the United States, similar to how
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manufactured cars and
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manufactured steel.


Decline

As early as the 1920s, industry-wide changes were resulting in a reduction of utilization of the Brooklyn plant. After American Sugar completed a plant in Baltimore in 1922, refining operations in Brooklyn were reduced. The company also assumed space at
120 Wall Street 120 Wall Street is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It was completed in 1930. The building is 399 ft (122 m) tall, has 34 floors, and is located on the easternmost portion of Wall Street, and a ...
in Manhattan's
Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
in 1930, using that space for its offices. The refinery's cooperage closed in 1946 after the industry stopped using wood barrels to ship sugar. Employment at the plant fell after the end of World War II in 1945; the company had 1,500 workers in 1959.
Research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...
activities were relocated in 1958 to American Sugar's
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facility. Despite this, the company spent $16 million on expanding the facility in the 1960s. American Sugar was renamed Amstar in 1970, and its New York City office was relocated to 1251 Avenue of the Americas in 1971. By the late 1970s, the Amstar refinery was the only remaining sugar refinery on the Williamsburg waterfront. The Amstar brand was purchased by British firm
Tate & Lyle Tate & Lyle PLC is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage ingredients to industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s it began to diversify, eventually divesting its sugar business i ...
in 1988. Three years later, Amstar became known as Domino Sugar, after its primary trademark. Employment at the Domino Sugar Refinery continued to decrease, and by 1996 the plant had only 450 workers. After union workers' contracts expired in late 1998, Tate & Lyle announced upgrades to the refinery that would eliminate 100 jobs and weaken union guarantees. As a result, 284 workers went on
strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
in June 1999. When the strike started, Domino reduced operations at the refinery, performing much of the refining at its Baltimore plant before shipping it to Brooklyn for finishing. The strike ended in February 2001, making it one of the longest-ever in the city's history. Although over a hundred workers defected and returned to work, the remaining striking workers agreed to Tate & Lyle's plan to eliminate 110 positions.
American Sugar Refining American Sugar Refining, Inc. is a large privately held cane sugar refining company, with a production capacity of 6.5 million tons of sugar. The company produces a full line of consumer, industrial, food service, and specialty sweetener product ...
bought the brand and plant from Tate & Lyle the same year. Though the complex was able to process of sugar a year, it was only processing half that amount by 2002. The next year, American Sugar Refining announced that the Domino Sugar plant would be shuttered due to a lack of demand. The refinery stopped operating in 2004; more than 220 workers were laid off at the end of January 2004, and two dozen workers were retained for packing operations that shuttered by the end of the year.


Redevelopment plans


CPC proposal

The site was purchased by CPC Resources, the for-profit arm of the Community Preservation Corporation, and Brooklyn developer Isaac Katan in July 2004 for $55.8 million. Following a wide-ranging
rezoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
of the north Brooklyn waterfront the next year, preservationists lobbied to save the Domino Sugar Refinery and other industrial structures on the waterfront. The
Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) designated the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House as an official city landmark in 2007. Though the yellow "Domino Sugar" sign facing the East River was not part of the designation, the developer proposed keeping the sign by displaying it on top of the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House. CPC's original plan for the site, designed by
Rafael Viñoly Rafael Viñoly Beceiro (born 1944) is a Uruguayan architect. He is the principal of Rafael Viñoly Architects, which he founded in 1983. The firm has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, London, Manchester, Abu Dhabi, and Buenos Aires. Viñ ...
, included up to nine buildings, four of which would be over tall. The plan called for 2,200 apartments, 660 of which would be set aside or designated as affordable housing, as well as a school; the "Domino Sugar" sign on the refinery would be preserved. The CPC plan received support from the
New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...
in 2010. However, it faced opposition from local residents, who objected to the scale of the proposed development. In 2012, CPC defaulted on its development project for the Domino Sugar Factory. Development company Two Trees Management expressed interest for the site that June, and purchased it for $185 million that October.


SHoP proposal

Two Trees submitted a new design plan for the site in 2013, designed by
SHoP Architects SHoP Architects is an architecture firm in Lower Manhattan, New York City, with projects located on five continents. Led by four principals, the firm provides services to residences, commercial buildings, schools and cultural institutions, as wel ...
. The new plan called for 60% more public open space on a new street grid, allowed mixed-use zoning, and was designed to connect the existing neighborhood to the new waterfront. Two Trees' plan would still set aside 660 out of the 2,200 apartments for affordable housing, but it would also include buildings of up to 50 stories, which would be some of Brooklyn's tallest buildings. Though some neighborhood residents opposed the redevelopment, this opposition was more limited after Two Trees agreed to add more affordable housing and parkland. However, the revised plan faced objection from New York City mayor
Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Yor ...
, who wanted even more affordable housing on the site, to which
David Walentas David Walentas (born 1938) is an American billionaire real estate developer. Early life and education Walentas was born in Rochester, New York. His father was of Lithuanian descent. When he was five, his postal worker father suffered a stroke ...
indicated that he was willing to revert to the older plan. In March 2014, the new plans were approved by the City Planning Commission. At the time, the redevelopment would have cost $1.5 billion. The agency signed off on the proposal after the de Blasio administration struck a deal with Two Trees Management to include more affordable housing units. That deal required Two Trees to include 700 below-market-rate units, which was 40 more than what was originally offered and 260 more than what the CPC wanted. In exchange, Two Trees was allowed to build its towers of up to 55 stories. Three floors would be built on top of the existing factory building.


Redevelopment progress

In 2014, photographer David Allee explored the abandoned portions of the refinery, stating that it smelled of "creme brulee mixed with mold and rot". The same year, from May through July, artist
Kara Walker Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best ...
exhibited her piece ''
A Subtlety ''A Subtlety'' (also known as ''the Marvelous Sugar Baby'' and subtitled ''an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of ...
'' at the refinery's Syrup Shed. After the closure of the exhibition, the non-landmarked portions of the refinery were to be demolished, as had been planned before the show. In mid-2014, demolition of the structures commenced; demolition was mostly complete by December 2014. Excavation for the first building in the complex, 325 Kent Avenue, started in May 2015. Two Trees also cleaned out the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House, which still contained its old sugar-refining machinery. In February 2017, the developers of the redevelopment project opened a housing lottery for the 104 affordable-housing apartments at 325 Kent Avenue, which attracted 87,000 applicants, or about 837 for every apartment. 325 Kent Avenue opened in July 2017, and the first residents moved into the building the next month. A second residential building, 260 Kent Avenue, started construction in early 2018. The LPC approved a redesign for the landmarked portion of the refinery complex in November 2017.
Domino Park Domino Park is a public park in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It spans a quarter mile along the East River near the Williamsburg Bridge, at the Domino Sugar Refinery site. Along the five-block riverside walk, variou ...
, a public park along the East River waterfront, opened in June 2018. A modification to the landmarked Pan, Filter, and Finishing House was approved in August 2019. The interconnected towers at One South First and Ten Grand opened shortly afterward. One South First opened in September 2019, followed by Ten Grand that November. The first office tenant at Ten Grand signed a lease in December 2019. No other office tenants had signed leases at Ten Grand before the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
in early 2020, which caused demand for physical office space to decline significantly. During the pandemic, Two Trees leased space at Ten Grand to numerous local companies. According to a 2022 analysis by ''
Curbed ''Curbed'' is an American real estate and urban design website founded as a blog by Lockhart Steele in 2006. The full website, founded in 2010, featured sub-pages dedicated to specific real estate markets and metropolitan areas across the Unit ...
'', "85 percent of the founders and principals" of the companies at Ten Grand lived in either Williamsburg or the adjacent neighborhoods of Greenpoint and
Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; East New York and the cemeteries of Highland Par ...
. By early 2021, the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House, which had been renamed the Refinery, was being renovated. Two Trees opened an affordable-housing lottery for One South First's 89 affordable units in early 2022. That August,
M&T Bank M&T Bank Corporation (Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company) is an American bank holding company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. It operates 1680 branches in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts ...
gave Two Trees an $80 million construction loan to fund the completion of the development. Around the same time, Two Trees began leasing out of office space in the Refinery building. Work on 346 Kent Avenue, a pair of 31- and 36-story towers at the southern end of the development, began in November 2022. In addition, the Refinery building's barrel-vaulted roof was being completed by late 2022, and an LED replica of the old "Domino Sugar" sign was installed on the building that December. Two Trees offered
tax break Tax break also known as tax preferences, tax concession, and tax relief, are a method of reduction to the tax liability of taxpayers. Government usually applies them to stimulate the economy and increase the solvency of the population. By this fi ...
s to companies that relocated from Manhattan to the Refinery building.


Buildings

The Domino Sugar Refinery site spans on the East River north of the
Williamsburg Bridge The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway ...
. When the redevelopment is complete, it will include of community and commercial space; of office space; 2,800 apartments, of which 700 will be affordable; and of parkland on the waterfront, which is part of
Domino Park Domino Park is a public park in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It spans a quarter mile along the East River near the Williamsburg Bridge, at the Domino Sugar Refinery site. Along the five-block riverside walk, variou ...
. The entire complex will eventually contain five residential buildings and cost $3 billion.


Residential and commercial towers


325 Kent Avenue

325 Kent Avenue, a 16-story, tower designed by SHoP Architects, is located on the east side of Kent Avenue. The building contains 522 residential units, 105 of which are affordable-housing apartments, and the units range from
studio apartment A studio apartment, also known as a studio flat ( UK), a self-contained apartment (Nigeria), efficiency apartment, bed-sitter (Kenya) or bachelor apartment, is a small apartment (rarely a condo) in which the normal functions of a number of ro ...
s to two-bedroom apartments. 325 Kent Avenue has of residential space and of ground-floor retail space. The building contains amenities such as a rooftop deck, a fitness center, a residents' lounge, and a courtyard on the fourth floor. The lower portion of the facade is made of copper, while the upper portion consists of zinc. The
massing Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building. Massing in architectural theory Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
of the structure consists of two stepped towers on the north and south, which step down gradually from west to east. The tops of the two wings are connected on the western side of the building, creating a rectangular hole on the western facade and giving it a "doughnut" shape.


One South First and Ten Grand

The 45-story One South First tower (also known as 260 Kent Avenue) and the 24-story Ten Grand tower are located between South 1st and South 2nd streets, north of the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House on the western side of Kent Avenue. The structures were designed by
Cookfox COOKFOX Architects (formerly Cook+Fox Architects) is a firm of architects founded by Rick Cook and Robert F. Fox, Jr. in 2003. The firm works on both new projects and on the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. COOKFOX is best known for designing ...
. One South First contains 330 residential units, 66 of which are affordable-housing apartments; the units range from studios to two-bedroom apartments. Ten Grand contains of retail space and of office space. The combined structure's amenities include a rooftop deck with cabanas, a fitness center, a residents' lounge, a swimming pool, and spaces for
coworking Coworking is an arrangement in which workers for different companies share an office space. It allows cost savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructures, such as equipment, utilities and receptionist and custodial services, a ...
. The buildings comprise a single structure; the massing is designed so that the upper stories of One South First are carried over the top of Ten Grand upon a glass-clad structure. The facade is made of precast concrete, which the architects stated is based on sugar crystals' molecular structure. The panels for One South First generally measure , while the panels for Ten Grand and the shared base measure .


Park

Domino Park runs along the East River waterfront, west of Kent Avenue. Designed by the architectural firm of
James Corner James Corner (born 1961) is a landscape architect and theorist whose works exhibit a focus on "developing innovative approaches toward landscape architectural design and urbanism." His designs of note include Fresh Kills Park on Staten Island and th ...
, the public park includes pieces of machinery from the factory, as well as gardens, a play area for children, and various fields. An elevated walkway runs along the length of the park. River Street runs parallel to the park for the entire length of the development.


Refinery

When the refinery was rebuilt in 1882–1883, it was composed of several structures on the west side of Kent Avenue between South 2nd and South 6th streets. It was described upon its completion as being the largest sugar refinery in the Americas. The Pan, Filter, and Finishing House is located between South 2nd and South 3rd streets. Immediately adjacent, between South 3rd and South 4th streets, was a 6-story storehouse and a machine shop. The block between South 4th and South 5th streets was a 7-story refinery building, while the block to the south was a single-story detached storehouse. Only the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House remains of the refinery complex.


Pan, Filter, and Finishing House

The extant structure of the refinery consists of the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House (also known simply as the Refinery), a New York City designated landmark designed by Theodore Havemeyer, Thomas Winslow, and J. E. James. The building is at 292 Kent Avenue between South 2nd and South 3rd streets.


= Form and facade

= The 10-story pan house and Finishing House sections are tall, while the 13-story filter house section is tall, including a chimney. These structures are interconnected and measured north–south by west–east. The Pan, Filter, and Finishing House was one of the tallest buildings in Brooklyn when finished, rivaling the heights of
early skyscrapers The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, but significan ...
in
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
's
Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
. The Pan, Filter, and Finishing House is made mostly of reddish brick, which are thick on the lower stories and thick on the upper stories. The massing has no setbacks, though the facade has decorative elements on the upper stories. On the eastern facade, along Kent Avenue, there are vertical brick
pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s. On the western facade, facing the East River, the facade contains bricks that are recessed to form patterns such as chevrons and polygons. In some places, bluestone was used in
belt course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the f ...
s and
keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...
. Most of the windows have brick arches. The building was fueled by coal, which required a chimney to ventilate safely. The chimney was among the region's tallest when the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House was built. The top section of the chimney was expanded in the 1920s using curved brick. To deliver coal to the refinery, American Sugar used ten coal barges, each with a capacity of between .
Vishaan Chakrabarti Vishaan Chakrabarti (born March 29, 1966) is an American architect and professor. He is the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), which is an architecture firm based in New York. In 2018 he was named a fellow of the American In ...
of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism designed a conversion of the building in 2017. The plans include adding a new glass facade with a barrel vault behind the existing, landmarked walls of the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House. The glass roof was originally proposed to be high, but plans for the structure were modified in 2019, calling for a glass roof tall.


= Interior

= The interior was outfitted with brick floors atop brick flat-topped arches, which were supported by iron beams and 66 cast-iron columns. Fire escapes, fire extinguishers, and electric lights were also present in the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House. The interior of the building was converted to of office space in the 2020s. As part of the interior renovation, the ceiling heights of floors 1–4, 14, and 15 were increased, while floor 16 was eliminated. The ground floor would be used for retail and would also contain restrooms for Domino Park visitors. The building is also planned to contain a fitness club with a gym and swimming pool. Floors 2–13 would be used for office space, and floor 14 would have a double-height event space with a catering kitchen and service areas. Each story covers . Above the first story, the glass office structure is recessed from the landmarked facade, and each story is high. The structure's staircases would be between the landmarked facade and the glass structure. A wall garden would also be placed between the new office structure and the landmarked facade.


Former buildings

The former buildings at the refinery include the Syrup Shed, the Wash House, the Turbine Room, the Power House, and the Pump House. Several
gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...
s were situated on the waterfront, unloading sugar. The cranes ran on tracks that were long. The complex also contained a "bin structure" in which sugar grains were categorized by size, as well as conveyor bridges leading down to the refinery building. A yellow "Domino Sugar" sign, dating from the 1920s, was hung on one of the buildings facing the waterfront. In December 2022, a replica of the old sign was installed on the Pan, Filter, and Finishing House. In contrast to the original neon sign, the replica contains letters illuminated by LEDs. A two-story boiler house was located along the East River, west of the refinery building. A warehouse was located adjacent to the boiler house. Five large pumps drew in of
saltwater Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). On the United States Geological Survey (USGS) salinity scale, saline water is saltier than brackish water, ...
from the East River, which was used for the condensers and then pumped back out. The refinery also used large amounts of
fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
: in 1903, it was estimated that the refinery alone used two percent of Brooklyn's water supply.


See also

*
History of sugar Sugar was first produced from sugarcane plants in India sometime after the first century AD. The derivation of the word "sugar" is thought to be from Sanskrit (''śarkarā''), meaning "ground or candied sugar," originally "grit, gravel". Sanskrit ...
*
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), formed in 1965, is the New York City governmental commission that administers the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. Since its founding, it has designated over a thousand landmarks, classi ...


References

Informational notes Citations Bibliography * * * *


External links

* {{Williamsburg, Brooklyn American sugar industry Buildings and structures in Brooklyn Industrial buildings and structures in New York City Industrial buildings completed in 1882 New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn Redevelopment projects in the United States Sugar refineries Williamsburg, Brooklyn 1882 establishments in New York (state) Mill architecture