Category: Latest News

http://www.ourtimepress.com/cumbo-to-armory-developer-at-council-hearing-no-deal-for-market-rate-condos/

The developer chosen to transform Crown Heights’ Bedford-Union Armory, along with the city corporation that’s overseeing the project, were grilled for more than an hour on Tuesday at a City Council hearing focused on the plan.

The hearing was the first major milestone for the project since a contentious City Council election that focused on the controversial development plan for the site.

https://www.kingscountypolitics.com/condos-might-nixed-bedford-union-armory-redevelopment-plan/

On Tuesday, the plan came up for discussion at a City Council subcommittee hearing as the City considers the plan for approval. The current proposal on the table has the city giving a 99-year lease to BFC Partners, except for around 50 market-rate condominiums it plans to sell. The developer will then turn the rest of the 138,000-square-foot armory into a state-of-the-art recreational center, spaces for locally based non-profits and 330 mixed income rental units.

https://ny.curbed.com/2017/11/15/16654834/bedford-union-armory-condos-city-council

At Tuesday’s meeting, the main opposition was focused on the market-rate condos, according to the Daily News. The president of the Economic Development Corporation, James Patchett, said the mayor was considering whether it was appropriate to build market-rate condos on any city-owned land, and whether to introduce this as a citywide policy, according to the Daily News.

City Council member Laurie Cumbo, who represents Crown Heights, continued to voice her opposition to the project in its current state. Other members of the City Council generally tend to side with the neighborhood Council member, so the project will find it hard to pass without her backing. Cumbo is also opposed to the market-rate condos at the development.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/city-ditch-plan-turn-armory-luxury-condos-article-1.3633293?cid=bitly

The city may scrap plans to build pricey condos as part of a controversial development plan for Brooklyn’s Bedford Union Armory, officials said Tuesday.

The de Blasio administration is pushing the project to build a new recreation center and housing at the Crown Heights armory, but the plan has drawn fierce protests in the neighborhood and struggled to gain support from the City Council, which must approve it.

“That is something we are currently reevaluating,” Economic Development Corporation president James Patchett said at a hearing. “The mayor is seriously considering this policy in a citywide basis, and whether it is appropriate under any circumstances to be providing condos on city-owned property,” he said.