Jul 27, 2016 2 min read Nonsponsored

Developer May Snap Up Massive, Vacant, Contaminated Gowanus Property With $50M Pricetag

455-459 Smith Street. (Map via Google Earth)

A massive, contaminated, and undeveloped site in the Gowanus neighborhood is on the brink of being purchased. Property Markets Group (PMG) is in contract to acquire 455-459 Smith Street for approximately $50 million, according to The Real Deal.

Sources told The Real Deal that PMG is “considering building a mixed-use property that would contain a mix of offices, a hotel and retail.”

The 166,000-square-foot site is bordered by the Gowanus Canal on the east, 5th Street on the north, Huntington Street to the south, and Smith Street on the west.

The seller of 455-459 Smith Street is clothing magnate Henry Abadi, who used the previously demolished warehouse on the property to store his company’s inventory of school uniforms and other clothing stock. Although, the warehouse is gone, he has held onto the property until now.

Abadi told TRD in 2014 that he was not planning to sell the site because it was contaminated. The onus for the site cleanup is on National Grid, due to previous coal gas production on the site, which was once the Citizens Manufactured Gas Plant.

DNAinfo reported “[t]here was once talk of [nearby house development] Gowanus Green encompassing the property that PMG is now acquiring, but that vision did not come to pass.”

Over the last four years, TRD has purchased a series of low-rise industrial buildings in the Gowanus neighborhood:

404-428 Carroll Street, a 78,300-square-foot site. Purchased in 2012 for $9 million.
300-344 Nevins Street, a 204,100-square-foot site. Purchased in 2012 for $14 million.
131-135 3rd Street, a 10,800-square-foot site. Purchased in 2014 for $3.5 million.

While 455-459 Smith Street is currently zoned for manufacturing only, it’s likely zoning changes may very well expand land usage in the future.

According to YIMBY, “Zoning rules generally don’t allow office development in industrial zones, but the mayor and the Department of City Planning want to change the outdated policies that govern manufacturing areas.”