A farm and skate park are growing next to the former Domino Sugar Factory, a community partnership between Two Trees Management Company, the developers of the property and the neighborhood. We recently got a sneak peek inside, as North Brooklyn Farms (also casually known as the Farm on Kent) prepares to open this month.
Formerly located in a vacant lot across the street from the Domino plot, the community garden moved to be directly along the waterfront in May and plans to open later this month. They’re growing flowers and produce, all organic but none of which will be sold. Instead, they’ll be used for dinners to be hosted on site. How’s that for farm to table? From some of the picnic tables that are set up under string lights, you can literally reach over into the produce beds. A shipping container is also being converted into a mushroom farm.
The adjacent skate park, part of Ride Brooklyn, is still in construction but most of of the structure (and cool street art) is there. When the original location closed, neighborhood children were visibly upset, waiting at the entrance of the formerly empty lot, which is now becoming another Williamsburg development. Two Trees worked with North Brooklyn Farm and Ride Brooklyn to relocate onto the Domino property itself, with a backdrop of the East River, Manhattan, Williamsburg Bridge and of course, the impressive refinery building of Domino Sugar Factory.
The rounded grass craters are “seats for humans,” says one of the volunteers:
Views from atop one of the shipping containers on site:
The mushroom farm to be:
Kids excitedly peering in to see the latest developments:
Next, check out our previous behind-the-scenes photos at the Domino Sugar Factory site and read about what Two Trees is doing differently, see a video inside the refinery and now demolished raw sugar warehouse and photos of the Kara Walker exhibit in the sugar warehouse.
