Residential development along the polluted Gowanus Canal has stalled due to its designation as a Superfund site by the E.P.A. Photo: Ali Hussain

Reported on July 30, 2011

Sixth Street, between 2nd  and 3rd avenue in Gowanus, Brooklyn, is so desolate that it looks like a scene out of an old Western movie. The road is covered with dust and debris. Flecks of broken wood, collapsed wired fences and crumpled paper lay strewn across the street. One half-expects two men, with guns holstered, to walk out of a shaded corner and face each other in a duel. If it were not for the industrial warehouses that give the streets a sense of time and place, the neighborhood would seem like any other up-and-coming pocket of Brooklyn. It’s the warehouses that are the key to Gowanus’ future.

Gowanus is up for grabs. Real estate developers, artists, local pioneering residents and owners of the warehouses each want a piece of the neighborhood for their own use. This has created a pull for the future of Gowanus. Artists want to keep it as is, with affordable studio spaces and a bohemian air. Residents want to maintain its character as a quiet place in Brooklyn, and land owners are looking to sell their underutilized properties to the highest bidder: often developers, who want to build lucrative, luxury condominiums. Each group has their own vision for Gowanus. Each believe it to be the best one for the neighborhood and are vying for control of the warehouses.

In 1860, the Gowanus Canal was created by the city and became the main waterway of Brooklyn. In the years that followed, the surrounding land was used for industrial activity with factories and warehouses cropping up. The industrial sector grew to include steel mills, knitting factories, gas plants and coal yards. The American Can Company, T.E. Conklin Brass & Co. and the Metropolitan Gas Light Company were just a few businesses that made their homes in Gowanus. According to the EPA, these types of companies eventually contaminated the waterway and the canal became a pool of chemicals and pollutants. In the 1960s, industry started to decline in New York, leaving many Gowanus warehouses abandoned or home to new blue-collar businesses.

Gentrification hit the area in the early 2000s, when the surrounding neighborhoods of Park Slope and Carroll Gardens became destination points for well-to-do families. According to the Department of City Planning, in 1999 the median family income of the Park Slope/Gowanus border was $26,000 vs. a median family income of $88,000 in 2009. Gowanus was the only neighborhood that remained untouched because of the polluted canal. However, it attracted real estate developers hoping to ride the wave of gentrification, seeking to convert the warehouses into luxury condos.

“Gowanus is a great neighborhood, one of Brooklyn’s best. Elsewhere in the area, like Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights, you don’t have these large sites available,” said David Von Spreckelsen, senior vice president at Toll Brothers, a builder of luxury homes.

In 2008, the city moved forward with its own plans to clean the canal and to rezone the manufacturing area into a mixed-use one with residential pieces.

However, development plans came to a halt in 2010, when the E.P.A. designated the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site, stalling all new construction until the canal is cleaned. A Superfund is the federal government’s program to clean up the nation’s hazardous waste sites. According to Christos Tsiamis, project manager of the Gowanus Superfund, the canal will be cleaned within 10 to 12 years, leaving the timetable of rezoning unclear. Until the neighborhood is rezoned with a mixed-use designation of residential, commercial and manufacturing, developers have to wait before they can build.

In the interim, many small businesses and artists have taken up residency in the warehouses, a trend that started many years ago, but has blossomed within the last 5 to 10 years. These individuals are able to afford the lower rents compared to other parts of New York.

The Gowanus Studio Space is an artist’s workspace, housed in a warehouse that was once a knitting factory. As business declined, the owner converted the building into commercial loft spaces, renting floors to other businesses. According to Benjamin Cohen, director of the Gowanus Studio Space, one square foot of commercial space in Gowanus costs $1 to rent. In the face of stalled residential development, this is a way for landlords to make a profit on their stagnant properties and for artists to have an affordable place to work. “I want cheap art space and would like more spaces like this,” said Tammy Logan, a local artist.

For other artists, it’s the appreciation of the creative community that has taken root in the neighborhood. “The affordable part is nice, it’s a perk. But the studios in Gowanus make it easier to meet other artists. It’s an area where people can interact with each other,” said local artist, Rachael Whitney, whose previous studio in Sunset Park was isolated.

But, once the rezoning takes place, artists and long-time residents fear that the character of the neighborhood will disappear as residential developers offer a high price for the land.

Josh Young, founder of the Gowanus Ballroom, an exhibition space, also worries that development will mean disaster for Gowanus’ artistic community. “I think in general, the majority of the landowners don’t care about artists’ issues. It’s all about the money,” he said.  To see the neighborhood change from a creative enclave to being filled with luxury condos is what worries the artists. “I hope that it doesn’t turn into Williamsburg. I don’t want it to be too commercial or gentrified,” said Whitney.

However, the price tag that comes with residential development is attractive to land owners. “The city was going to rezone this whole area. If the Superfund didn’t come into existence, we had the air rights to 12 stories here,” said Danny Tinneny, who owns 100,000 square feet of land in Gowanus. “Five years ago what I have here was probably worth $25 million. What’s it worth now? I haven’t got the slightest,” said Tinneny, speaking to the uncertainty the Superfund has created. When possible, property owners, such as Tinneny, would like to sell pieces of their land for residential development, such as the now-defunct Toll Brothers project.

In 2009, Toll Brothers planned to build a residential development on three acres of land in Gowanus. Spreckelsen developed the project. “The opportunity to develop along the bank of the canal, we felt, was an interesting place where people would want to live. A lot of people were interested in buying a unit there. The [warehouse] owners were happy to sell. They recognized the value,” he said.

Toll Brothers went ahead with their development plans until it was killed by the E.P.A., when the E.P.A. took over the cleaning process and prohibited new construction. Toll Brothers never ended up buying the property, as part of the deal to sell was contingent upon rezoning, and once the E.P.A. got involved, this fell through and the land remained with the original owners.

For the foreseeable future, it seems unlikely that residential developers will be interested in Gowanus given its Superfund status. Asked if Toll Brothers would look into the neighborhood again, Spreckelsen said, “I think it’s unlikely. I think it will be quite a few years before things are resolved and cleaned. There is a lot of uncertainty and it’s difficult to develop a condo product when there is a period of uncertainty.”

As of now, the artists are winning the battle for Gowanus, as residential development is all but impossible while the canal is cleaned. “I guess we do have an advantage,” said Whitney.

“With the Superfund business going on it seems to me those artists are going to be safe for quite a long time,” said Spreckelsen. He doesn’t see the benefit of the E.P.A.’s cleaning plan over the city’s shorter one either, which focused on cleaning the water by renovating the flushing tunnel that pumps clean water into the canal. “After the E.P.A. cleans it up, people still won’t be allowed to swim in there or be able to eat the fish they catch. What do you gain? I don’t know. Doesn’t seem like a lot to me,” said Spreckelsen.

But what is gained is time, which is important for the individuals who would like to keep Gowanus as an artist and commercial community. “I’m relieved that the Superfund happened. It’s slowed down the development process and people are revisiting how the area should change and are incorporating the artistic/historical aspect into that,” said Sasha Chavchavadze, founder of Proteus Gowanus, an interdisciplinary gallery.

Buddy Scotto, who has lived in the area since 1928, has witnessed this change in the neighborhood. “There are many different small groups of people beating the drum for their own point of view,” he said.

Only time will tell which group wins out, or if they can all come to a compromise to shape Gowanus into a unique neighborhood of artists, commercial space, and new residential development, all the while maintaining some of the old industrial charm that made it such a fascinating place.