Is the Next Roebling Oil FieldOn Kent Avenue?

We're really not sayin...its just that when we took a walk down Kent Avenue this morning, when we got to the former Brooklyn Redi-Mix site between North 3rd and North 4th Streets, there was a strong, definitively petrochemical smell in the air. Sweet, light crude, possibly with notes of coal tar. And one of those subsurface soil condition testing drilling rig thingies. Yes, a crew taking core samples on the site of the future Chetrit Group residential building at 53 North 3rd Street (aka 175 Kent Avenue).

Now we're notorious for having a lousy sense of smell, and unlike the Roebling site, we didn't actually see any oil, so we gave it a few hours and walked by again.

Yep, same smell, same spot. Just as strong. More drilling. Just sayin.

If we're right, we recommend referring to the site as the North 3rd Oil Field though, given that Kent is a hella long avenue that likely has plenty more oil fields still to be revealed.