Who We Are
Working in Williamsburg Company Profile
Members of the Domino Team
A LETTER FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Welcome to the New Domino!
The Community Preservation Corporation has created this web site to keep you informed about the Domino Sugar Project, the exciting new 11.2-acre residential development we plan to build along the Brooklyn waterfront. This proposal will create an economically diverse residential community with affordable housing, market-rate housing, publicly accessible open space and a waterfront esplanade. It will also preserve the centerpiece of an historic manufacturing hub.
This web site explains our vision for what the Domino development will bring to the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area and will also include the latest news and developments regarding our plans.
The Community Preservation Corporation, a leader in the creation of affordable housing, has played a pivotal role in Williamsburg for more than three decades. We have been involved in the creation of nearly 2,000 low, moderate, and middle-income apartments in 57 developments, reflecting a total investment of approximately $240 million.
We encourage you to support this vital project which will reclaim the waterfront for public use and bring urgently-needed affordable housing to the neighborhood. Please sign up as a supporter so we can keep you updated about important news, milestones and events as they happen.
We look forward to working with the Williamsburg and Greenpoint communities to make these neighborhoods better places to live, work and raise families.
Sincerely,
Michael Lappin
President & CEO
Community Preservation Corporation
CPC’s founding principle is to serve neglected neighborhoods. It has spent more than three decades working in partnership with government and communities to help meet the urgent need for quality affordable housing.
In Williamsburg, CPC has played a critically important role over the last 20 years, having been involved in the creation of nearly 2,000 low, moderate, and middle-income apartments in 57 developments, reflecting a total investment of approximately $240 million.
A few of our projects in Williamsburg include:
CPC has partnered with Los Sures, a community development organization in Williamsburg that has developed hundreds of affordable housing units and manages over 1,000 units in the Williamsburg area. CPC assisted in providing the financing for 25 newly constructed low-income units in Williamsburg.
CPC provided financial support to create an affordable home for out-of-town patients: This project originated with Detective Nelson Dones of the New York City Police Department, who received life-saving cancer treatment at a Texas hospital. He learned first-hand how important it is for patients and their families to find a welcome and affordable place to live in a city far from home, and he was determined to develop an affordable apartment for patients who come to New York City battling to save their lives. When Detective Dones asked CPC for help, CPC responded by lending him $1 million and providing assistance and supervision for the construction of a new 7-unit building in Williamsburg — with one large, affordable apartment reserved for visiting cancer patients. CPC provided an additional $35,000 of support by donating furnishings for the apartment and subsidizing the first year’s rent. View CPC Williamsburg Investment Map
The Domino Site was purchased in 2004 by the Refinery LLC, a group consisting of the managing partner, CPC Resources, Inc. (CPCR) and its partner the Katan Group. CPCR is the wholly-owned for-profit development arm of the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), a nationally recognized private, not-for-profit mortgage lender that helps developers finance and build affordable multi-family housing. The mission of CPCR is to undertake development opportunities that support CPC’s affordable housing mission. Since CPCR is the controlling partner of the Refinery, it has sole decision-making responsibility for the development of the Domino Site.
CPC was founded in 1974 by a group of business leaders and financial institutions to stem the tide of deterioration and abandonment threatening at-risk communities in New York City, such as Washington Heights in Manhattan and Crown Heights in Brooklyn. These leaders recognized that adequate and affordable housing is a crucial component in sustaining viable neighborhoods.
Today, CPC is sponsored by more than 90 commercial banks, savings institutions and insurance companies. CPC is New York State’s leading financer of affordable housing units, representing public and private investments of more than $6 billion toward the building and redevelopment of over 140,000 homes. The large-scale housing renewal undertaken by CPC over the past thirty-plus years has resulted not only in the revival of deteriorating housing stock, but also in the restoration and stabilization of entire neighborhoods and the maintenance of affordable rents for the residents of thousands of apartments.
Following CPC’s lead, CPCR develops affordable and middle-income housing, primarily in emerging and underserved communities. The range of our projects shows that no project is too small or too large. We have developed or rehabilitated small buildings in partnership with first-time developers and have rescued troubled properties such as Parkchester, the 12,271 unit Bronx residential development that CPCR acquired in 1995. To date, in addition to the renovation of Parkchester, CPCR has invested in approximately 1200 housing units. We operate in New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut.
Developing eleven-plus acres in one of New York City’s greatest neighborhoods requires careful thought and far-ranging expertise in planning, design and construction. With that in mind, we have assembled a top-notch team with an outstanding track record.
We have engaged the world renowned architect Rafael Viñoly to design an exciting and accessible new residential community. Quennell Rothschild & Partners will design the open space, including the waterfront esplanade and the central gathering area behind the Refinery. And for the design of an adaptive reuse of the historic Refinery building, we have engaged a leader in the field of preservation, Beyer Blinder Belle, LLP.
Quennell Rothschild & Partners Landscape Architects
Beyer Blinder Belle, LLP Historic Preservation Architect
