It’s Official: There Will be a Roebling Oil Building West

A little over a week ago, we noted that a rat poisoning campaign was underway at 475 Driggs, the property immediately to the west of the Roebling Oil Building Warehouse 11. We’ve waiting for something indicating that the property has been sold or that the buildings were going to be demolished. As it turns out, last Thursday (2/28) an application was filed for a new five-story, 70-foot-tall building with 54 apartments that will be designed by Karl Fischer, the Roebling Oil architect. The only thing remaining is for another building to be built on the N. 10th Street side of the property. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see if the oil mess that bubbled to the surface before being removed on the rest of the property will be present when the west end is dug up.

Rats Paying Ultimate Price for Roebling Oil Field West?

Generally, the rats are the first to know that something is up with a property. So, we were fascinated to find that 475 Driggs, the building that shares much of the block to the west of the Roebling Oil Field Warehouse 11 now has a bunch of those big black rat poison things and rat poison signs. Last year, a tipster mentioned that the building might be on the market. No property sale is noted in city records yet and no building permits have been filed, but the sudden activity indicates that something is up (or may have already happened and we’re just waiting for the paperwork to be posted). The Karl Fischer-designed Roebling building has always seemed like it was meant to have a big center courtyard and companion buildings to the west and south. It will be interesting to see if the property is changing hands, not to mention what might be found when excavation starts.

Say What–Down for the Count

This downed sign, which was felled by some sidewalk digging in the last few days, comes from Roebling Street and N. 11, right across the street from our friend, the Roebling Oil Building. Presumably, it’s only down until they stop digging and fix the sidewalk, unless they’re looking for oil…

Roebling Oil Building Gets a Sales Office

The former Roebling Oil Building, now Warehouse 11 or W-11 on N. 11 Street at the site of the former Roebling Oil Field, keeps moving along. We were wandering past the other day, reminiscing about what the construction site still looked like a year ago when oil was oozing from the ground, when we noticed lamps in the windows in the corner unit on the second floor and many signs for the sales office. We understand that requests for all the documentation about contamination at the site and the surrounding area have been requested from the Department of Environmental Conservation under the Freedom of Information Law.

Residents Filing Freedom of Information Law Request for DEC Roebling Oil Field Reports

While the Department of Environmental Conservation has sent a letter saying that the contamination of the Roebling Oil Field / Warehouse 11 site was confined to that property before a clean up took place, some local residents are skeptical and want to see all the documentation. GL has been told to expect at least one local group will file Freedom of Information Law requests with the department for all of the consultant reports and test results relevant to the project. The Department says that it has concluded that Roebling site was the source of some oil that has migrated under N. 11 Street rather than any oil from surrounding areas impacting the Roebling site. Earlier internal communications and statements indicated that oil on the property came from a source outside the site. There are about a dozen test wells on N. 11 Street adjacent to the Warehouse 11 development. The department has not released any test results from the wells, including ones drilled by its own consultant, since last Spring. “I can’t take them at their word,” one resident told GL. “We want the reports and test results. If they won’t turn them over voluntarily, then we’ll file the legal requests to get them.”

Good News of a Sort About the Roebling Oil Field & Warehouse 11

The Queens Ledger published a story yesterday that has some good news and bad about the former Roebling Oil Field, which is the site of the new condo called Warehouse 11. The good news is that Department of Environmental Conservation head Pete Grannis sent a letter to Assem. Joe Lentol saying, “Based on our analysis of the information gained from this investigation, it is apparent that the development site where the oil was first discovered is the sole source of the oil.” The bad news is that the Warehouse 11 development, in the words of the Ledger, is not:

sitting on top of a field of wildflowers. There was contamination at the site, and some remediation work has already been completed, and a vapor barrier has been installed. However, DEC has not signed off on the work and, according to Grannis, more work needs to be done to address oil that ‘migrated from the property beneath the adjacent sidewalk.’ DEC plans to continue to test the site in the future.

The Assemblyman told the paper, meanwhile:

“There has been much speculation as to the source of the problem, but no one could deny that oil had been spilled at this site. As to the possibility of the oil contamination originating from an off-site source, DEC has determined that the evidence does not support such a theory.

DEC’s conclusion that all the oil found on the Roebling Oil Field site came from tank removed from the site seems to contradict earlier statements from its own consultants and, even, its own internal emails. Last spring we were told by a source familiar with the cleanup that the on-site oil tank that had been discounted as the sole source of the contamination and that at least some of the “product” had originated from outside the Roebling Oil Field site. In addition, a May 2, 2007 email from a Department of Environmental Conservation official who was responding to an inquiry from an official at the state Department of Health that was forwarded to GL indicated the oil was “from an off site source.” It said in part:

During the excavation of the site, oil seepage from off site source was noticed and steps have been taken to recover it. Source investigation is underway, and the seepage has decresed to a minimum which indicates significant portion of the liquid contamination has been recovered.

Residents are filing a Freedom of Information Law request with DEC for full test results and consultant reports about the source of the contamination that was discovered during the Warehouse 11 construction.

Dept. of Environmental Conservation Stonewalling on Roebling Oil Field Results?

Is the Department of Environmental Conservation stonewalling and not turning over reports about all the test wells it drilled adjacent to the Roebling Oil Field (as recently as this fall) where luxe condos are now on sale? That is what a neighborhood activist who’s been working through a State Assembly Member and a City Council Member is alleging. “We’ve been trying to get answers on what’s down there for a year and haven’t been able to get a document since last May,” he told GL. The most recent document that was obtained indicated that there was a “localized plume” of oil at N. 11th Street and Roebling rather than a bigger flow of oil that was coming from somewhere else. Yet, key documents that would indicate what has been found in more than a dozen test wells on N. 11th Street and on Roebling Street have not been released, although Assem. Joe Lentol’s office indicates that it’s believed the contamination is localized and not part of bigger problem. No one appears to know, however, if the source has been definitively identified or how much oil remains underground.

The most recent DEC documents that were obtained by GL were from last May and June, before a new series of wells were drilled by consultants on behalf of the state. Residents, who are concerned that residents around N. 11 & Roebling are still at risk and that there could be a broader threat in the neighborhood, are filing requests under the state’s Freedom of Information Law for the documents that would either indicate that no more oil is present or whether it continues to flow underground. Documents last spring suggested the state had been unable to identify the source of the underground contamination. A technician working on the wells had previously told a neighbor that the spill was on the large side.

In the meantime, the development that led to the discovery of the oil, which is now called Warehouse 11, is on the market and is having an kickoff party on January 31. The contamination may be coming from a site across N. 11 Street from Warehouse 11.

Roebling Oil Building Now Has Warehouse 11 Banners

We could hardly contain our joy at finding banners officially proclaiming the Roebling Oil Building at the former Roebling Oil Field site at N. 11th and Roebling Streets in Williamsburg as Warehouse 11 (or W11 for short). This means the marketing and sales push are full speed ahead in 2008 for the luxe condo that has risen on the formerly contaminated site adjacent to a “localized oil plume.” As luck would have it, we reached into the hard drive archive, which has hundreds of weekly shots showing the site when it was just-plain-foul-and-polluted, and selected one taken exactly a year before the shot on top. Ah, digital memories.

Roebling Oil Building Update: Warehouse 11 on the Market

The building that we’ve been waiting for–having been photographing and posting about the building site for more than year–is upon us. The Roebling Oil Building Warehouse 11 is on the market. It is “modern industrial design redesigned.” There are eight apartments listed so far and the opening screens of a website, a couple of screen shots of which we reproduce here. The marketing copy says that it was “created with a Whimsically Artistic, Outside-the-Lines Approach. Crisscrossing Chic Industrial and Sumptuous Modern in Williamsburg’s oh-so-sweet Bedford Avenue/McCarren Park location.” It goes on to say:

Life at Warehouse 11 is anything but by-the-book. Industrial sensibilities overlap with modern design, and decadent five-star amenities take the Lifestyle component to the most luxurious of levels. At Warehouse 11, you’ll be properly catered to by your attentive full-time doorman, seated in style in your modern gallery lounge, exercised to perfection in your state-of-the-art fitness center, spiritually awakened in your yoga garden, refreshingly wowed in the open-air rooftop sun deck. And for the little ones—they’ll be imaginatively inspired in the children’s playroom.

Amusingly, the website refers to the building perched atop the former (and cleaned up) Roebling Oil Field as W-11, which is one letter and 29 numbers away from WD-40. If you and the little ones want to see what the W-11 site looked like around this time last year, click here. Also, if the little ones are interested in learning about the “localized plume” of oil in vicinity (and the test wells in the sidewalk outside), in the words of a state Department of Environmental Conservation Official, you can click here and read them a bedtime story imaginative inspiration.

Memory Lane: Remembering the Roebling Oil Field

With the Roebling Oil Building coming to market as Warehouse 11 in “North Williamsburg,” we’re feeling nostalgic for all the time we spent at the site shooting photos of oil oozing up through the ground as the clean up process was underway. All traces of the oil were gone by late spring as a “protective membrane” was put down and a foundation was poured. The Department of Environmental Conservation has continued drilling test wells and trying to figure out how big the spill is and where it’s coming from. We’ve been feeling some strong pangs of oily nostalgia, so here are a few from the Roebling Oil vault.