When Brooklyn’s landmark Domino Sugar Factory was sold in 2004 the intent was to convert the factory into low and moderate income housing. However, New York City has another group that is just as powerful as the housing advocates, the Preservationists.

So now we have a battle between these powerfully politically connected groups in New York City over the future of the Domino Sugar Factory. And it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.

Last month, the Waterfront Preservation Alliance of Greenpoint and Williamsburg formally asked the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider the old sugar factory for landmark status.
A plan for a project combining market-rate and low-income housing at the site is being drafted by the partnership that bought the property shortly after the factory closed in 2004. It consists of the Community Preservation Corporation, a nonprofit organization, and Isaac Katan, a private developer.
The preservationists, supported by the local City Council member, David Yassky, want any development to conform with the factory, a hulking brick Romanesque Revival structure that dates to the late 19th century and recalls an era when New York was the nation’s leading sugar producer.
Mr. Yassky angered local preservationists last year by helping to override the landmark designation of a nearby warehouse. The Domino plant, he said, is more significant. “It’s an icon,” he said. “It’s a landmark in the popular sense of the word. When I talk to people in Queens or Manhattan about that part of my district, I say it’s right by the Domino Sugar factory, and they know where that is.” via the New York Times.

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