325 Kent

325 Kent is a rental apartment building at 325 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, developed and managed by Two Trees Management. It was the first building completed in the redevelopment of the former Domino Sugar Refinery site, and its SHoP Architects design is a copper-toned loop with a large opening at its center, often described as a doughnut, that frames views toward the Williamsburg Bridge.

The building stands on Kent Avenue beside Domino Park, the waterfront park that runs along the East River with the refinery’s preserved gantry cranes and syrup tanks. The Williamsburg Bridge is a block south. The J, M and Z stop at Marcy Avenue, the L at Bedford Avenue, and the NYC Ferry East River route stops at South Williamsburg and North Williamsburg.

Completed in 2017, the 16-story building opened the redevelopment of the Domino site, which Two Trees bought in 2012 and planned with SHoP Architects, while James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architects of the High Line, designed the park. Under the agreement with the city, about a quarter of the apartments on the site were set aside as affordable housing, and 325 Kent includes income-restricted units alongside market-rate apartments.

Its 522 apartments wrap around the central opening, so many have views through the building as well as out over the river and park. The refinery building itself, a landmark dating from 1882, has been converted to offices, and Domino Park below includes a playground, beach volleyball courts and a long elevated walkway.