December 6, 2006
Curtains for the Red Hook Sugar Refinery
Some sad news for fans of New York industrial architecture: demolition permits have been issued for the Revere Sugar Refinery, located on a pier off Beard Street, and sandwiched between the site of the new Fairway and the soon-to-be-built Ikea. The property was recently purchased by Thor Equities, the same company that is working on the "redevelopment" of Coney Island. The site has long been a popular destination for photographers-- but it sounds like if you want to get any last pix, you should probably get down there ASAP. Word from Curbed is that Breeze Demolition trucks are already on the premises, and demolition of the signature dome begins on Friday.
Red Hook Sugar Refinery 2003, from Bluejake.
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oh no! where are all of the photographers supposed to go now?? WON'T SOMEBODY THINK ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHERS?
seriously, who the hell cares about all these "signature" buildings getting demoed. life goes on and it'll probably make the neighborhood better
That place is gorgeous and its old, dilapidated charm is part of what made Red Hook romantic. I'm sad to see it go, but that's New York. What really grinds my gears are the Fairway and Ikea; completely out of scale for that little corner of Red Hook and sure to turn those few streets into nightmarish throughways. Didn't one of the local representatives get caught accepting bribes during the approval process for the Fairway? Whatever happened to that?
>>>who the hell cares about all these "signature" buildings getting demoed. life goes on and it'll probably make the neighborhood better
You can bet the ranch there won't be anything "signature" going up in its place.
More barracks for the Richie Riches, most likely. Riv vu.
www.forgotten-ny.com
Been there, done that!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brouhahapics/tags/sugarrefinery/
I agree it is sad, but only because I find beauty in lonely scenes of urban decay. Red Hook could have been developed on a much more limited scale to be like a European waterfront gem but the easy developer money seems to be winning out once again.
Thor Equities... erasing Brooklyn one old building at a time.
Obviously the refinery had outlived its usefulness, but it's a shame no one creative could have found a new use for this.
Creative? Development? Not in this town.
seriously, who the hell cares about all these "signature" buildings getting demoed. life goes on and it'll probably make the neighborhood better
[2] Posted by: alex | December 6, 2006 5:35 PM
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How?
You can bet the ranch there won't be anything "signature" going up in its place.
More barracks for the Richie Riches, most likely. Riv vu.
I suppose that's preferable to yet another Fedders Special.
yeah, demolish it. demolish everything old!! we need more glass condos for rich people!
I've heard from a number of people that stray dogs live in the sugar refinery. My neighbor adopted one of them. Does anyone in Red Hook know if they are still there and if there are plans to remove them first?
hey kevin, the "richie riches" are the ones buying your book. so shut it.
Nah, they're buying "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind."
www.forgotten-ny.com
seriously, who the hell cares about all these "signature" buildings getting demoed. life goes on and it'll probably make the neighborhood better
[2] Posted by: alex | December 6, 2006 5:35 PM
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How?
[7] Posted by: Andrew J. Lederer | December 6, 2006 7:34 PM
Hrm lets see, abandoned factory in decay vs new development.
Abandoned Factory: Place for crack dealers, homeless, rats, ironic photos to be passed off as art.
New Development: anything short of a toxic waste dump will be better.
In 100 years the same type of people will be complaining about the buildings of today being demolished. This thing isnt even beautiful or architecturally significant.
alex, I dont think we will. Most buildings built today are garbage.
I agree with commenter #3 that these new projects are completely out of scale with the neighborhood and are already causing a traffic nightmare. Seriously, once Ikea opens, it's going to be beyond horrible. I still can not believe that got approved. I think it would be much better to take these historic sites, which were such an important part of the shipping and manufacturing industry, and turn them into something the community could enjoy and benefit from without ruining the character of the neighborhood. It COULD be done, it just wouldn't be as mega-profitable. But hey, we all need more particleboard furniture!!
Wow, for most of you this seems to be all about class envy. Face it, that building/factory IS a peice of shit. Why don't all you civic minded folks run for public office or pool your money and buy these places. Oh wait, then you would have to get a real job or at the very least get off of the couch at the non-chain coffee house where they piss into the pots when your snotty cracker ass isn't looking.
The only thing that could improve Red Hook would be a subway. This would be much better than a 2nd ave line where the people that moved over by 2nd knew there was no subway and they probably like it that way.
And you can take all of these comments and sum it up this way:
NYC is no longer a place for the creative, working class people. The areas in which artists have gone and made it cool for the trust-a-farians (and you know who you are) have almost been completely absorbed by the developers and euro-trash that have absolutely NO regard for "what was". I don't say don't renew and revitalize. Take what we've got and use it in a creative and positive way. Really...what made NYC? All of these "new" people are standing on the backs of those that came before. Take me, born and raised here. I've lived in every borough except the Bronx. I live in Red Hook now. I CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE (again). You all can stay and try to make sense of an ever evolving beast that has became New York. Good luck. You'll find me one step ahead of where ever the rich folks (with no clue or class of their own) and developers aren't.
By the time they dimolish this crap they will loooooooooooozzzzzzzzzz all they got!
I heard that the RE Broker by the name Mark Grunfeld was ripped off on commissions as I heard he was the one putting the deal togther (first meeting with buyer and seller) and the selles I think Jacob or Joseph Hoffman scrued him on commissions..............well if on a deal like this you cant take care of the brokers that work so hard then let them suffer!!!!!!!!!!
Im a broker myself and I know the feeling.