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BIG is back – and better — in Gowanus. The developers of 175 Third St. tapped Bjarke Ingels’ much-in-demand architectural firm to design their planned, 1,000-unit, rental apartment tower –
and it’s nothing like BIG’s earlier concept for previous site-owner Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty. The new 175 Third St. in the burgeoning residential neighborhood from Charney Companies and Tavros
will stand 27 stories encompassing over 1 million square feet – the fifth building by the partners on four different sites on the Gowanus Canal’s eastern side. The images on this page
reveal Ingels’ new vision for the first time, which the architect described as ” a three-dimensional neighborhood of building blocks stacked to frame a central park cascading down toward the
canal waterfront.” “We had our eyes on the site forever,” Charney Companies principal Sam Charney said. “But someone else always owned it” until “the price finally came down [to $164
million] and we knew this was the time.” The purchase closed in May. When RFR bailed, it was expected that Charney and Tavros would choose a different architect. Instead, they liked Ingels’
new concept the best of the proposals they solicited from a half-dozen “starchitects.” “We did not like the previous iteration,” Charney told Realty Check. “It was inefficient and hard to
build. It had a red-brick design that kind of drowned out the [red brick] Powerhouse Arts structure next door.” But Ingels’ new conception “blew us away,” Charney said. Its textured
“architectural concrete” will look as if it’s chiseled out of rock” — an homage to the area’s industrial past. Chamfered, angled corners at various heights generate “cool outdoor spaces.” A
federal-supervised cleanup of the two-mile-long, noxious canal that began ten years ago and is still far from finished prompted the city to rezone 82 blocks in the former low-rise
manufacturing area for residential use. The rush to create nearly 9,000 new rental apartments spurred a construction boom. A portion of the once-toxic canal – long a punch line of stand-up
comedians – emerged as the district’s unlikely scenic centerpiece. The waterway now suggests a picturesque, slow-moving river between handsome apartment towers on both sides. The new 175
Third Street will have 1,000 rental units, of which 25% are “affordable” as required by neighborhood Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning. It will follow Charney and Tavros’ 224-unit Union
Channel, which opened in February and is already 60% rented; and Douglass Port at 251 Douglass St. and Nevins Landing at 310 and 340 Nevins St., both under construction. Rents at Union
Channel range from $3,400 to $7,500 for market-rate units and from $848 to $1225 in the affordable ones. Pricing at 175 Main Street has not been decided. Sam Charney estimated the
development cost of 175 Third St., including the land purchase, at about $1 billion. With 100,000 square feet of retail space, it will be the crown jewel of what Charney and Tavros call a
“Gowanus Wharf campus” even though the buildings aren’t next to each other. It will boast a 30,000 square-foot public park with 250 feet of canal boardwalk; sports facilities, a dog run,
rooftop lounges, spa pools and a three-acre, landscaped courtyard, plus 35,000 square feet of lavish indoor amenities. A waterfront promenade will eventually run the canal’s length, with
each developer responsible for the segment in front of their buildings. The ones Charney and Tavros are installing on their Nevins and Third Street frontages will be designed by Field
Operations, the lead designer and landscape architect for the High Line Park in Manhattan Construction of 175 Third St. will likely start when the Nevins and Douglass Street buildings are
finished roughly a year from now.