Dumbo Rezoning Could Spawn Over 1,000 Apartments

The city is seeking to open the gates for more residential conversions and development in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo; and, in a twist unusual in New York City development, local community groups are mostly supporting the effort.

The city is planning to rezone about 12 blocks in the compact, cobble-street-lined waterfront district, allowing owners of Dumbo’s manufacturing and warehouse-style buildings to convert their properties to apartments of modest densities and heights (up to 120 feet in some parts).

While official estimates have yet to be determined, the director of the Department of City Planning’s Brooklyn office, Purnima Kapur, said she thinks the rezoning may allow for more than 1,000 new apartments.

A local residents group, the Dumbo Neighborhood Association, has presented its own rezoning plan, one that also welcomes new residential conversions and construction, though it would include about 25 blocks.

Dumbo, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, has emerged from something of a cocoon in recent years, as artists streamed into the area, attracting developers to convert spacious warehouse space into apartments. The pioneer in the neighborhood turnaround was Two Trees Management, led by David and Jed Walentas, which bought numerous industrial buildings and opened them up to a steady flow of apartment dwellers that turned the onetime manufacturing hub into an intimate, artsy neighborhood evocative of Soho.

When Dumbo developers such as the Walentas duo want to make a residential project, they are usually required to go through the city’s lengthy land-use review process on a project-by-project basis, given that the land is currently not zoned for residential. But if the City Council ultimately approves the rezoning—the city anticipates starting the approval process this fall—landowners would be able to convert to or build residential without any zoning approvals, decreasing the restrictions on such development.

“Residential is not allowed here—it is sort of the little hole in the donut that is left,” Ms. Kapur, of the planning department, said of the area now.

Of course, the city also made the whole area a landmark district last December, meaning that any development in Dumbo needs to gain approval from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, which considers whether a building fits within the character of a neighborhood.

The neighborhood’s business association supports the proposal, said Tucker Reed, the director of the Dumbo Business Improvement District. “I think that the vast majority of our owners down here in Dumbo think that City Planning’s proposal is a very fair and equitable plan,” he said.