Pier Review: Northside Pier Nearing Completion

Checking in on progress at the namesake for Toll Brothers' Northside Piers development at Kent Avenue and North 5th Street - the East River jetty now sports a sharp-looking stainless steel railing and an assortment of benches and small tables. No obvious sign of a water-taxi launch from our vantage point.

A couple additional details on the development trickled out in a March 12th article in The Real Deal, an NYC real estate trade publication:

Toll Brothers has no plans of offering free rent for its retail space, as Two Trees Management did back when Dumbo lacked neighborhood amenities...a waterfront restaurant is planned for the second tower, which will have 274 units. That tower will overlook a giant sculpture by local artist Mark Gibian that could be 30 feet tall and weigh eight tons, according to one estimate.

Under city zoning laws, Toll Brothers is required to create a waterfront esplanade on its property along with a pier that contains some shade element, which is how the sculpture came to be.

As sales of units in the nearly-complete tower have slowed (by Toll Brother's own admission), the developer has programmed several arts installations on the property to maintain traffic through its waterfront sales office. The events have included a mid-March fashion show, a performance by the Opera Company of Brooklyn, and curating a show for Slate Gallery in its lobby.

Here's hoping that Toll Brothers allows immediate public access to the new pier as an additional lure to prospective buyers.

Toll Brothers hopes to get Northside Piers back in fashion [The Real Deal]