110 Green Street

Meltzer/Mandl Architects

Once hipsters discovered the working-class, immigrant area of Greenpoint, the developers weren’t far behind. It’s a familiar pattern and, like the booms in Chelsea and the East Village, it has its pluses and minuses. Figure out the lay of the land before you act.

On the housing front, rezoning in 2005 made the scruffy waterfront ripe for high-rise luxury condo-maximums. Two years in, a necklace of multistory buildings circles McCarren Park; it’ll yield more than 400 luxe homes. Magic Johnson’s 130-unit condo project has met with some local resistance, but “construction is definitely going on,” says Robert Guskind, of The Gowanus Lounge and Curbed. Meanwhile, skinny “finger” buildings loom high above Greenpoint’s two-family brick and frame homes, and projects by the Development Group will add an additional 200-plus high-end units.

Although there are no plans to build new schools, or relieve crowded public transport, rezoning did at least guarantee a measure of affordable housing for households earning up to $70,000 a year. Still, according to Community Council president Philip DePaolo, that’s roughly twice the local income. It also promised a two-mile waterfront promenade, with shade trees, pier access and waterfront parks. Development to date is spotty (and, some say, shoddy) because the land is privately held, unlike the Lower Manhattan Development Council’s showpiece esplanade. And one year after it was razed in a giant blaze, the site of the vast Greenpoint Terminal Market site still languishes, charred and only partially cleared.

Further up the Kings County coast, oil-tainted Newtown Creek (which was contaminated in the 1950s) continues to fester, but attorney general Andrew Cuomo’s impending lawsuit aims to remedy the mess. Yet it’s not clear how that will affect the area’s planned waterfront projects, which are within spitting distance of a sewage treatment plant and potent garbage-transfer station.

Despite the odd waft of “eau de sewage,” the nabe’s idiosyncratic charms can’t be denied, and the infusion of well-heeled newbies is bringing the economic heft and civic enthusiasm that transform local shops, restaurants and public spaces, like the fashionable McCarren Park Pool. Chic has come to Greenpoint, and it’s here to stay.

Your guide to Greenpoint:

• Eating and drinking: Manhattan Avenue is still the main drag, but a slew of new places have opened on Franklin Street.
• Clubs and venues: Old-school Slavic clubs pack in the locals, but there are a couple of joints that pull in outsiders.
• Shopping and services: There’s still a healthy nexus of 99-cent stores and Polish pharmacies, but a new crop of tony boutiques is emerging.
• Transportation
• Public space
• Real estate

• Greenpoint's future: How a sewer line, an oil spill and Magic Johnson will help shape the years to come.