Group: Laura, Soyeon, Zoya, Inna

We were assigned the role of “Developer,” and our group priorities were to: “create a profitable project luxury apartment complex,” “develop spaces that are easily marketable,” and “maximize long-term gains.” After reviewing all of the locations on the walking tour, we decided that our selected site is the Sludge Tank/site of Greenpoint Landing. Although many of the sites we visited were desirable from the perspective of potential development, the Sludge Tank site’s 2005 rezoning makes developing much easier because it seems to require a less stringent approval process (as evidenced by the upcoming Greenpoint Landing project). It seems that the property is prime for a luxury development because of its waterfront location, views of Manhattan, and proximity to the East River Ferry. Further, the Greenpoint area is much less developed than Williamsburg’s waterfront at this time, offering the potential for maximizing long-term profits since land will be cheaper in the short term. We anticipate that the value of the property will increase greatly over the next 10 years, following the trend that has been seen in Williamsburg. In addition to the value of the land, Greenpoint’s relative lack of development means that the community may have not developed organized advocacy groups yet, meaning that we might meet less resistance to developing the waterfront area in a manner that would maximize our profits.