After decades of limited access, portions of the Domino Sugar Factory were opened to the public on Sunday in advance of the site’s transformation into a residential development and public park.

The factory and the surrounding property, which has been closed for several years, will soon be undergoing renovations as developer Refinery LLC will be creating more than 2,000 units of residential housing and an 11.2-acre waterfront greenway that will be accessible to the public.

As part of an effort to familiarize the neighborhood with the area, Refinery LLC, in association with the Greenway Initiative, opened the factories waterfront esplanade. The passageway, which runs along the East River from North 2nd and North 5th streets, will soon be the site of an open-access park that will provide waterfront access and provide another link in the chain of parks that will soon connect the entire Western shore of Brooklyn.

Hundreds of neighbors turned out for the event, which was co-hosted by the Open Space Alliance of North Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. A large majority of those who came brought cameras to snap photographs of the stunning East River vistas from the long-closed waterfront, as well as to snap photos of the historic sugar factory.

While the developer is committed to preserving much of the original structure as part of the new development, the storage building and the machinery will be demolished, and neighbors relished in the opportunity to study and memorialize the parts of the factory that are not long for this world.