All stories about "Transgas"

The big Williamsburg power plant proposal is dead, right? Well, it's dead, but only kinda' sorta' because the Dracula of Brooklyn Proposals has yet to get the definitive stake shoved through its heart. In other words, there are always appeals that can be filed. One process was started today, but what's riveting is the wording in the press release from TransGas, which reads a little bit like what would have happened if an angry guy from the Communist Party USA had run a PR writing workshop for corporate execs in 1985. The release uses phrases like "zeal to appease" former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff," "suicide mission to sacrifice" the future, charges of pandering to "well-heeled, largely white" gentrifiers and more. In that sense, it is one of the most superb press releases from a business on a dry topic we have seen in years.

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[Photo courtesy of f.trainer/flickr]

Let's just say the fight for control of the land currently occupied by Pfizer in Williamsburg is not going to pretty to watch. The pharmaceutical giant, which is shutting down the plant, wants to find someone to develop the 15 acres of land as "a mixed-use, mixed-income complex." Meanwhile, State Assemblyman Vito Lopez has introduced a bill to get the land for affordable housing via eminent domain with part of the rationale being that Pfizer has "almost always donated their land back to the community in a good faith effort to contribute to areas" where its plants were located. Pfizer isn't having it. They emailed The Real Estate to say "Not only is the concept of state-sponsored eminent domain extremely premature at this point and potentially chilling for development statewide." Interestingly, it's not the only eminent domain threat being used in the Burg. State Sen. Joe Lentol is pushing an idea to seize the property held by TransGas, which saw its Williamsburg waterfront power plant turned down last week, for use as part of the Bushwick Inlet Park. Brooklyn's other big eminent domain hot spot is Atlantic Yards.
· Vito Lopez Moves to Take Pfizer's Brooklyn Site by Eminent Domain [TRE]
· Will Pfizer Need Anti-Depressants Over Brooklyn Property? [Curbed]

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The big proposed TransGas Power Plant on the Williamsburg/Greenpoint waterfront is finally dead. For real. The power plant, which managed to cling to life for several years after it was supposedly "stopped" by community objections was definitively laid to rest today by an obscure state agency called the Siting Board. The plant, most of which would have underground, would have gone on land south of the Bushwick Inlet that the city wants to turn into a big park. It would have been north of East River State Park, The Edge and Northside Piers condos. Joe Lentol, an Assemblyman who led the fight against the plant issued a statement saying he was "thrilled" at the decision and that building the plant would have been "a travesty and a betrayal." The city still faces a long process putting together all of the land for the park. The utility owns the eight acres that would form part of the park and the same Assemblyman has suggested taking it via eminent domain.
· Will End of Gas Pains Clear Way for Big New Burg Park? [Curbed]
· Brooklyn Waterfront Still Has (Trans)Gas [Curbed]

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