Landmark Domino Sugar Refinery reopening as office tower along Brooklyn waterfront

The historic Domino Sugar Refinery on the Brooklyn waterfront is officially opening Wednesday, following more than a decade of renovation to convert it to a high-end office building complete with plans for a bar, indoor pool and fitness center.

The opening marks the latest milestone in the ongoing transformation of once-industrial Williamsburg, reshaping the skyline along the East River.

The 15-story, all-electric structure now dubbed the “Refinery at Domino” is just north of the Williamsburg Bridge. Developers Two Trees Management described it as “the crown jewel” of its larger 11-acre Domino Sugar Factory site — once home to a booming sugar refinery — that also includes the popular Domino Park.

The factory was once the tallest building on the waterfront, with the original structure dating to the 1880s. The famous brick facade and arched windows were retained and act as a shell for the new building within, topped by a domed glass penthouse with 360-degree views.

A 12-foot gap between the new building and the old is filled with a vertical garden of trees and plants open to the elements.

David Lombino, managing director of Two Trees, described it as a “living landmark.”

“You look around the city, I’m not sure there’s another more ambitious landmarked project than this one,” he told the Daily News during a recent tour of the site. “I think for a lot of folks who looked at this project, the landmarked status of the refinery building was a big turnoff. We looked at it as an opportunity to do something really unique, really iconic, and hopefully really successful.”

To pay homage to the building’s history, a replica of the iconic “Domino Sugar” sign has been added on the top of the building, and the original will be redone and installed in the lobby. The refinery’s ground floor will be open to the public, with retail and permanent rest rooms for Domino Park.

The penthouse will have amenities for workers, including a bar, and half will be used as an events space. Office workers will also have access to an indoor pool and fitness center.

Sugar production was one of Brooklyn’s most important industries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the refinery didn’t cease operations until 2004; it was landmarked three years later.

When finished in 2027, the larger site will also include three residential buildings and another office tower, plus Domino Square, an extension to the park that will include amphitheater seating and ice-skating in the winter. The 1-acre plaza is expected to open next summer.

Work on the building is ongoing but Lombino said it could have tenants by the end of the year. He said about 4,500 employees could be based out of the Refinery, roughly the same number that worked in the sugar factory in its heyday.

Two Trees acquired the site for $185 million in 2012 and has spent about $150 million renovating the Refinery. Early iterations of the Refinery redesign included more than 2,000 residential units, though that plan was scrapped.

Two Trees is one of the borough’s biggest developers, perhaps best known for its role in transforming DUMBO, another waterfront Brooklyn neighborhood.

“It aligns with where we’re seeing demand in the office sector,” Lombino said of the decision to build offices despite the broader industry limbo. “People are less eager to work in central business districts in Midtown and lower Manhattan. There’s a desire to have work closer to home. Williamsburg, north Brooklyn as a whole has seen an incredible influx of talent in the past 10-plus years. The idea is folks would rather work in a highly amenitized space closer to their home, with a surrounding park and exciting neighborhood than schlep into some of the central business districts.”

But the 13-year renovation journey was not always a sweet one: There were protests from locals early on expressing fears about gentrification, and a construction worker on a residential building site part of the bigger Domino Sugar campus fell to his death in 2016.

Two Trees is putting down roots elsewhere on the Williamsburg waterfront: Its ambitious “River Ring” development nearby could bring two massive towers, a park, public beaches and breakwaters. But Lombino says the state would need to introduce a new tax abatement program “in order for the math to work” on the project, after the lucrative 421-a property tax exemption expired last year.