Opponents of the residential development of the partially landmarked Domino Sugar Factory hope that the economic crisis will prompt developers to scale down and rethink the plans.

The waterfront area in front of Williamsburg’s Domino Sugar Factory was opened to the public yesterday for the first time in almost 100 years. The opening of the esplanade marks a new era for the factory, which is being redeveloped into a massive residential and commercial property with market rate and affordable housing units.

Stephanie Eisenberg, head of the Save Domino group, is urging that plans for residential units at the former Domino Sugar Factory be thrown out and replaced with plans to build a large, cultural and community center on the site. Eisenberg would like to see the site used for gallery space, 4 acres of open space, and 200 units of affordable housing. She believes that more market-rate units are not...

Construction will begin next year to convert Williamsburg’s vacant Domino Sugar Factory into 2,200 units of housing, 660 of which will be set aside as affordable housing for households with annual salaries between $25,000 and $95,000. An open house at the factory attracted hundreds of people who were interested in updates on construction plans and buying property.

Developers of the New Domino, the 2,200-unit mixed income housing complex that will occupy the renovated and expanded old Domino Sugar refinery, have committed to refurbishing the refinery’s old sign and including it in their design. The refurbished sign will sit atop a new steel structure affixed to the top of the planned rooftop expansion. Plans for the redevelopment of the refinery were approved...

Churches United, an organization of over 20 churches in the Williamsburg area, rallied on Sunday to demonstrate their support of the Domino Sugar factory redevelopment project. Several hundred people assembled in front of the waterfront factory, calling for local leaders to also support this project so that it can move forward in the City's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). Father Jim O’Shea...

The newest plans for the Domino Sugar Refinery Building were approved this morning by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). The modified plan keeps the famous Domino Sugar sign as part of the complex, moving it to the roof of the Refinery Building. Incorporating recommendations from the LPC, the architecture firm, Beyer Blinder Belle, scaled back the size of the project resulting in a decrease...

Assembly Member Joe Lentol (D-Williamsburg) is asking Community Preservation Corporation Resources, developer for the site surrounding the historic Domino Sugar plant in Brooklyn, to produce its financing plan for the development. The plan, which includes two thirty-story and two forty-story towers, raised Lentol's suspicions because of the project's magnitude. The developer defends the project's...

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) expressed concern with plans to add a glass addition to the Domino Sugar Factory, forcing the developers to reconsider their plans. The LPC felt that the design didn’t suit the Factory and was “too tall”. Many of the commissioners felt that it needed to be more industrial and “visionary.” No decision was made on the plan.

The plans for the Domino Sugar Refinery renovations and additions were analyzed at a Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) meeting yesterday. Several preservationists criticized the plan’s addition of five glass floors on top of the existing structure as being too large and not in harmony with the current building. The developers argued that the addition was necessary to offset the costs of creating...