Williamsburg (Kent Ave.)

Kent Avenue is a pocket community in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. It is named for the first law professor at Columbia College, James Kent (1763-1847). Up until the mid-1980s, the waterfront area was mainly industrial with cargo trains running between busy manufacturing buildings and ships waiting at the water’s edge. Today, the waterfront adds a tranquil and quiet edge to the neighborhood with its expansive views of Manhattan, bridges, and boats. The most dramatic development in the Kent Avenue neighborhood is the massive re-imaging of the Domino Sugar factory. At its peak of productivity in the 1980s, it refined four million pounds of sugar daily, producing up to 98 percent of the sugar consumed in the United States. The overall Domino redevelopment project, includes a massive public park stretching a quarter of a mile, a new waterfront esplanade, and six acres of parkland.