Williamsburg’s skyline is getting a dramatic new bookmark on the East River. At 280 Kent Avenue, the north tower of a massive two-building project has climbed past its foundation and is now more than a quarter of the way up, with its matching twin starting to catch up next door. When the dust settles, the pair will stand at roughly 50 stories each, packing in 1,262 homes and about 12,230 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The development fills the last missing city block in Two Trees’ Domino Sugar masterplan and is already reshaping views along Kent Avenue and Domino Park.
What's going up
Architecture firm REX is steering the design while Two Trees Management handles development on the two-tower complex, which is expected to total about 1.17 million square feet and top out near 591 feet in height, according to New York YIMBY. The plan calls for two matching 50-story volumes rising from a shared podium, wrapped in a sweeping glass curtain wall with elliptical cutouts punched into the wraparound balconies. Roughly 25 percent of the apartments are slated to be permanently income-restricted under the approved plan, a detail that has been part of the pitch from the start.
How far along
The north tower’s superstructure is just over 25 percent complete, while the south tower is slightly behind, Urbanize New York reports. Recent site photos and street-level sightings show cranes swinging, curtainwall panels staged on-site and the podium beginning to take shape as construction shifts from substructure work into early superstructure phases. The block previously held a two-story marine distribution building tied to the old refinery, which was demolished in 2014 as the wider waterfront redevelopment moved ahead.
Money and timeline
To keep the latest phase moving, Two Trees secured roughly a $460 million construction loan from M&T Bank, according to an April report in The Real Deal. Public construction trackers are not exactly in agreement on when everything wraps up: Field Condition’s recent update lists a 2028 completion target, while the SkyscraperCenter database currently puts expected completion in 2030. The split illustrates the usual megaproject shuffle between contractor schedules, database estimates and phased financing plans.
Where it fits in the Domino plan
Once finished, 280 Kent will close the book on Two Trees’ five-part reimagining of the former Domino Sugar refinery site, capping an 11-acre redevelopment that also includes the adaptive reuse of the Refinery building and Domino Park, as reported by Brownstoner. The project spans the full block between South 1st and South 2nd Streets and sits within walking distance of the Bedford Avenue L train and the Marcy Avenue J/M/Z lines, according to New York YIMBY. Plans also call for wider sidewalks, new street trees and plaza space intended to stitch the complex into the riverfront promenade instead of turning its back to the water.
What to watch next
Field Condition’s latest pass notes that facade installation and curtainwall staging are underway at the podium and lower floors, and the project is expected to push into the upper-level enclosure phase over the next year. As Two Trees locks in the core and shell, leasing and marketing will largely depend on financing checkpoints and interior buildout schedules. For nearby residents, the day-to-day change will be watching two new towers carve out a permanent place on the skyline. For the city, this is the final big piece in a long-running effort to reinvent a once-industrial stretch of the East River waterfront.
