The historic Greenpoint Water Tower to Be Removed for New Building

By Williamsburg 365 Staff

Greenpoint's changing skyline will lose one of its most familiar features as plans move forward for a new residential development.

A nine-story mixed-use building with 99 residential units is planned for 70 West Street, between Noble Street and Milton Street in Greenpoint, where an existing water tower is slated for removal to make way for the development, according to Greenpointers.

Permits for the project were filed in October 2026. The proposed 95-foot-tall development will yield 70,013 square feet, with 68,700 square feet for residential space and 1,313 square feet for commercial space. The building will have 99 residences, most likely rentals based on the average unit size of 693 square feet. The concrete structure will also have a cellar, a 31-foot rear yard and 13 open parking spaces.

Mendy Schwimmer is listed as the developer behind the project, which is associated with Seventy West Realty LLC. The water tower stands on the property where the new building will go.

The tower is a leftover from Greenpoint's industrial past. It once supplied water to the American Manufacturing Company, a giant rope works on the waterfront that made marine rope and was once one of Brooklyn's largest employers. The plant employed more than 2,500 workers, most of them immigrant women, and supplied some 15,000 miles of rope to the U.S. Navy and merchant fleet during World War I. The rope works closed in the 1970s, but the tower stayed.

Over the years it became a neighborhood landmark. In the 1980s a group of Polish men climbed it at night and painted a huge Polish flag on it The slogan stayed up for years until the owner painted the tower gray in late 2014.

The development marks another change to Greenpoint's streetscape, where new housing is reshaping former industrial areas. The planned 99 apartments could bring more residents, while the commercial space may provide room for businesses.

A structural work application has been filed for the tower's removal as part of the development process. A construction start date and a timeline for removing the tower have not been announced.

The project's next steps will depend on the city's building approval process.