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Gowanus Developer Banking on Long-Planned Park as Amenity for New Offices

 A rendering of the park that's slated to be built at Gowanus Green, a 774-unit affordable housing project in Gowanus. Developer Peter Moore is renovating a nearby building on Hoyt Street into offices because he feels the park will one day be a neighborhood amenity.
A rendering of the park that's slated to be built at Gowanus Green, a 774-unit affordable housing project in Gowanus. Developer Peter Moore is renovating a nearby building on Hoyt Street into offices because he feels the park will one day be a neighborhood amenity.
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Rogers Partners

GOWANUS — The long-delayed Gowanus Green mixed-use development is still years away, but one developer is already betting it will be a draw for his future tenants.

Developer Peter Moore recently filed permits to renovate a former industrial building at 425 Hoyt St. into commercial space and anticipates luring businesses that will want to rent offices near the 1.3-acre park planned for the Gowanus Green site, also known as Public Place.

"We're excited about one day seeing Public Place built," Moore said. "The reason we got this property was really in anticipation of that. That's why we did this deal, because this building will at some point front right on the park. It will be a great amenity to have. Right now this location feels a little forlorn.”

Moore, who's leasing the building from owner Linda Figliolia, plans to add a third floor to 425 Hoyt and transform the structure into private storage for an art collector and commercial space, most likely to be used as offices, on the ground floor, Moore told DNAinfo New York.

The building is in an isolated nook of Gowanus, but it's in for big changes eventually. It's right down the block from the future home of Gowanus Green, a 774-unit eight-building development with lots of affordable housing that's slated to include the neighborhood's largest public park.

The green space will overlook the heavily polluted Gowanus Canal and will feature "an undulating lawn perfect for Frisbee, sunbathing and picnics, and many other activities," according to a description on the project's website. The EPA is leading a Superfund cleanup of the canal, which is expected to finish sometime after 2020.

Developer Hudson Companies, which the city selected to build the complex back in 2008, has said it hopes to break ground on the project in 2018.

Moore is one of many developers and investors making long-term bets on the neighborhood, which is anticipated to be rezoned sooner rather than later.

Prominent developer Two Trees Management Company bought 424 Hoyt St. for $7.7 million in 2008, records show, and a new 13-story building for small manufacturers is in the works nearby at 148 Third St.