Domino Sugar Factory redesign unveiled

The long-awaited redevelopment design for the Domino Sugar Factory was unveiled today by Two Trees Management, whose vision for the 11-acre stretch along the Williamsburg waterfront consists of a row of sleek, open-air, and uniquely designed buildings that include a mix of commercial and residential units, plus landscaped public green space.

Two Trees paid $185 million to CPC Resources to take over as developer of the site in the summer of 2012; their new plan is estimated to cost $1.5 billion to develop.

The plan is for a waterfront lined with narrow towers, one of them connected by ground-floor and mid-air bridges — leaving it looking like giant, aesthetically-pleasing, rectangular donut — surrounded by a waterfront park and public plaza. Compared to the previous plan from CPC, there would be 60 percent more open space, more office space, and shared access to housing amenities by both high- and low-rent residents.

The renderings were designed by SHoP Architects — of Barclays Center, B2 at the Atlantic Yards, and Pier 17 Seaport fame — which describes it as a vision for “a new skyline for Brooklyn” that has the landmark Domino Sugar refinery building as “the nerve center of the project as a new office building across from a new public space, Domino Square.”

The Domino Sugar sign will remain intact and represent the incorporation of the historic past with the intended innovative future.

Two Trees hopes to get ULURP approval of the plan by this April so that they can begin construction on the first building in 2014. The project would take around a decade to complete.