The people, the lies and the conspiracy of the City of Yes

 

 

With the City of Yes of Housing Opportunity about to get heard by City Council and New Yorkers the next two days, Intrepid City Planner Paul Graziano dropped a report on the sneaky tactics at the previous zoom hearing and sneaky people trying to get the worst housing plan in New York City history approved in spite of majority rejection by community boards and residents.

Here are the best parts on Paul's X account.

T

The video above happens to be from this farcical rally with everyone from Paul's COY list. They can't even answer housing related questions and defend their agendas without their YIMBY scripts and talking points. And they refuse to answer the most important question no one is asking these dopes, who is going to build this City of Yes?

Developers too stingy to build more apartments

 

 

 The Real Deal

The construction pipeline is getting narrower.

There were 351 new building filings in New York City in the third quarter, down 17 percent from the second quarter and 28 percent year-over-year, according to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York.

The drop is in part because the 421a property tax break for multifamily development in the city expired June 15, which triggered a rush of filings. The 689 in the first quarter were the most in a quarter since 2014, which, not coincidentally, was just before the previous version of 421a expired.

A drought followed the 2014 surge, and now history is repeating itself. Developers have all but stopped trying to put together investors to pursue rental projects that cannot get the 35-year property tax break. Condo projects were largely excluded from the most recent iteration of 421a.

Rising interest rates have also contributed to the decline, as financing projects of all kinds became more challenging for developers.

But the impact of 421a’s expiration is clear when comparing the slowdown in filings for rental projects to the overall drop in new-building filings. The quarter-over-quarter falloff in rental filings was 62 percent, nearly four times the quarterly decline overall. Only 78 rental projects were filed in the quarter, half as many as in the same period last year.

Those 78 projects are proposed to have 3,346 units, down 46 percent year-over-year and the smallest quarterly number in a decade — since the slump that followed the 2008 financial crisis.

Rental projects in much of the city became dependent on 421a over several decades. Progressives let the tax break lapse, believing it forgave too much property tax for too little affordability. Some predict it will be several years before it is replaced, although an abatement still exists for co-ops and condos.

Julie Won's constitution for affordable housing development

 

Queens Post

Councilmember Julie Won has put together an extensive list of guidelines—with input from non-profit leaders and community organizations– that developers must adhere to when seeking a rezoning in order to get her support in the city council.

Won, who was a Community Board 2 member prior to being elected, says the document aims to democratize the rezoning process, providing the community with greater input as to what is deemed appropriate for development. She said past rezoning decisions were left almost exclusively in the hands of councilmembers and were less “community driven.”

The guidelines she has created is what she refers to as a “living document” that she says will change with the needs of the district and city.

“As an office, we partnered with nonprofit partners to craft our land use principals document and have socialized it with the City Council Land Use division as well as other community partners,” Won told the Queens Post. “This is a living document that will continue to evolve as our community also continues to evolve.”

The guidelines essentially call on developers to do more than what is standard today in order to get their rezoning applications approved. She is calling for greater community outreach (in multiple languages), offer affordable units at deeply affordable levels and to invest in public services.

Won’s guidelines are important since she will ultimately determine the fate of rezoning applications in the 26th Council district, which covers Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City and parts of Astoria. The council, which must approve all rezonings, typically votes in lockstep with the representative where a development is proposed in what’s known as member deference.

“We released our land use principles to promote our community’s role in building new developments in our district and bring transparency to the land use process. We want to make sure that developers meet the minimum requirements to do business with our district: community engagement, affordability, and community investment.”

 

Back to the drawing board for Innovation QNS luxury public housing complex

Queens Post 

The massive Innovation QNS project was rejected by Community Board 1’s Land Use & Zoning Committee Wednesday night—despite the development team making modifications to the plans prior to the meeting.

The Innovation QNS developers, who seek to rezone a 5-block area in the vicinity of Steinway Street and 35^th Avenue, made the adjustments in the wake of a public hearing held on May 25 where they received a vast amount of feedback.

The developers’ overarching plan involves creating a mixed-use district between 37th Street and Northern Boulevard, bound by 35th and 36th Avenues, which would consist of more than a dozen buildings that would range in height from eight to 27 stories as well as two acres of open space.

Gerald Caliendo, co-chair of CB1’s Land Use & Zoning Committee, told the developers at the May 25 hearing that the committee believed that the size of the buildings along 35^th Avenue—adjacent to the residential area–needed to be reduced, while the larger buildings should be located toward Northern Boulevard.

He also said that the committee held the view that there is a need for active recreation space—such as a small soccer field or basketball courts–noting that much of the open space was designed to be used as a as commercial corridor to the retail area. Furthermore, the committee called for a community center that would be operated by the likes of a YMCA of Variety Boys & Girls club.

The developers—consisting of Silverstein Properties, Kaufman Astoria Studios and BedRock Real Estate Partners—came to the committee meeting with a series of changes to the plans. The essence of the plan, however, remains the same, which involves 2,800 apartments—711 deemed affordable—along with commercial, retail and community space.

Eran Chen, of ODA Architecture, presented the changes on behalf of the development team to the committee, which included the following:

— the elimination of a 16-story building located at the corner of 35^th Avenue and 41^st Street

–the reduction of the height of a building at the corner of 35^th Avenue and Steinway Street from 20 to 15 stories

— a reduction of the height of a building at the corner of 35^th avenue and 42^nd street from nine to eight stories

— reducing another building on 35^th Avenue from 27 to 24 stories

The buildings, however, closer to Northern Boulevard have been enlarged to make up for the lost scale on 35^th Avenue.

The developers also announced that they have added a 30,000 square foot recreation center, which will offer indoor active space. The center is going in where the community board initially thought a school was going to be built—only to learn that the School Construction Authority did not seek the site.

The developers also said that the retail space would be targeted toward locally-owned businesses.

Despite the revised plans, the underlying zoning application would not change. The committee was assured by Jesse Masyr, a land use attorney, that the developers would stick to the revamped plans noting that it came down to their credibility.

421A-holes

 

THE CITY 

The clock is ticking on the final days of a likely-to-expire tax break real estate developers rely on to build new apartments — and the rush is on to get foundations in the ground before June 15, when 421-a will end unless the state legislature passes an extension.

In Astoria, Queens, the second phase of the Durst Organization’s massive Hallett’s Point development will have laid all its foundations by the middle of next month — allowing those buildings to qualify for the lucrative property tax incentive. But Phase 3 and its 800 more apartments will be shelved if 421-a expires, says the developer.

“The only place we could build a market rate apartment building without 421-a is near Union Square or maybe in a few other slices of Manhattan,” said Jordan Barowitz, a company vice-president.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Two Trees Management Co. has begun constructing 350 Kent as part of its equally massive Domino development, which will add 400 units — 30% of them designated as affordable, or rented to households earning specific incomes, under the city’s inclusionary housing program. But a rep for the developer says the future is “cloudy” for another planned building at Domino and the first two structures planned at its newly approved River Ring site because they may not be able to pour their foundations before the deadline.

New units issued permits soared to 4,091 in March, according to Census Bureau’s building permits survey data analyzed by THE CITY, compared with 2,678 in January and February combined. Sources who have seen preliminary data for April and early May say the surge has continued.

Brooklyn BP and Council Crony Restler want to disqualify residents who drive cars from living in affordable housing.

Brooklyn Paper 

Borough President Antonio Reynoso and northern Brooklyn Councilmember Lincoln Restler are demanding an end to minimum parking requirements for new construction in transit-rich areas. 

When a developer seeks a rezoning to build taller developments, they’re often forced to build off-street parking — which is designed to reduce the impact that new construction has on parking in the neighborhood. 

But now, the group of electeds signed a petition letter calling on the Department of City Planning (DCP) to fully waive parking constraints for all residential developers of any rezoning projects in public transit-rich areas.

The representatives aim to disincentivize people living in areas with access to subways and buses from using and buying cars, with the intention to reduce carbon emissions and improve the “borough’s urban fabric” — all while providing developers with the option to redirect space toward construction of more affordable housing, said Restler in an exclusive to the Brooklyn paper.

“The accessory parking in buildings on key mixed-use corridors like Fourth Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, and Fulton Street disrupt our borough’s urban fabric, making our City less affordable, less walkable, and incentivizes car ownership,” read the electeds’ letter to the DCP. “The last place we need developers to build accessory parking is in areas with substantial access to public transportation. We need to reduce car ownership in our city, and requiring new parking within close proximity to public transit has the opposite effect.”

Restler pointed to one 28-unit rising project just outside the Bedford subway station, which includes 14 required parking spots on the ground level — saying that, in addition to other problems, such requirements often make the construction “drab, dark, and lifeless.” 

“Because below-grade parking is so expensive to construct, many developments across the city do so on the ground-floor, leading to drab, dark, lifeless streets rather than dynamic ground floor retail and community facility spaces that generate jobs and fulfill critical neighborhood’s needs,” said a statement from Restler on Monday.

Even though there are many businesses around the crossroad of Bedford Ave. and North Seventh Street, it is not confirmed that the new building will have commercial spaces.

Within slightly over 2 square miles, Williamsburg residents have access to the four bus lines and seven subway stations.

“This is an example of an area that doesn’t need more parking, doesn’t need more cars, for sure,” said Reynoso. “So it’s a model development for us to use as a first shot at showing people that parking requirements should not be used here. Also, I think the most important thing is that the parking requirements being removed, allows for more housing to be built. It makes the projects less expensive. It also makes it so that instead of taking down, you can build up, so we got more housing out of this proposal.”

City integrates nature and upscale hotel in plan for Rockaway redevelopment

Crains New York

L+M Development Partners, the Bluestone Organization and Triangle Equities have closed on $30.3 million in financing for the first phase of Arverne East, a 116-acre oceanfront development in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods of the Rockaways.

The first phase is a 35-acre nature preserve with a new building featuring a welcome center, a park ranger office, a comfort station and a community center, owned and operated by nonprofit organization Rise.

According to plans, the entire development eventually will include 1,650 units of housing—80% of which will be affordable—retail space and a beachfront hotel atop city-owned land that has been vacant and dilapidated for nearly 50 years.

 “In moving forward with this long-envisioned plan for Arverne East, we are ushering in a more resilient and inclusive future for the Rockaways community,” said Louise Carroll, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

In the early 1970s, the city acquired and cleared most of the urban-renewal area for redevelopment to remove substandard housing and make way for new low- and moderate-income housing, but it hasn’t been redeveloped. 

The project completed the city’s arduous uniform land-use review process in March, with a push from Borough President Donovan Richards, who recommended the plans be approved. Construction on the whole project is expected to be finished by 2031.

 

Gowanus rezone approval spurs luxury public housing over-development blowback

 

The Real Deal 

 Developers have filed plans to build three more largely residential buildings in recently rezoned Gowanus.

Rabsky Group affiliate Galaxy Developers and Monadnock Development each submitted plans for a 22-story building with approximately 300 residential units at 395 Carroll Street and 155 3rd Street, respectively. Avery Hall Investments put in paperwork to build nearly 200 units at 653 Union Street.

A steady flow of Gowanus developments have been filed since October, when it became clear the rezoning would pass.

But that is not the only reason that project filings are piling up at the Department of Buildings. The scheduled expiration of 421a, a generous property tax break for residential construction, in June is prompting developers to get their foundations in the ground by then.

Largavista Companies filed plans to build a 46-story tower with 518 residential units at 30-05 Queens Boulevard in Long Island City. The building will span about 474,000 square feet.

Howard Hughes filed its application to build at 250 Water Street after slogging its way through the Landmarks Preservation Commission and City Council as opponents complained that the project is too tall.

The building clocks in at 26 stories with 324 residential units and 160,000 square feet of commercial space. The site, which abuts the high-rent Financial District, has been a parking lot for decades, despite several attempts to develop it.

Also in Queens, Albert Shirian’s Lions Group filed plans to build a 49-story tower with 363 residential units at 26-32 Jackson Avenue. The company secured construction financing for an adjacent residential project at 27-01 Jackson Avenue with 164 units across 27 stories, the Commercial Observer reported.

Rego Park's fallen Empire

NYC Council approves Gowanus luxury public housing rezoning after leveraging NYCHA repairs and also the blood bank tower upzoning

 

The Real Deal

The City Council both bucked and abided tradition Tuesday with the approval of a life sciences expansion on the Upper East Side and a sweeping rezoning in Brooklyn.

Lawmakers voted to rezone Gowanus to allow mixed-use buildings in an 82-block area largely restricted to manufacturing use. City officials estimate that the change will enable the construction of more than 8,500 apartments, 3,000 of which would be set aside for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers.

As part of the proposal, City Hall has agreed to pay an estimated $200 million for repairs at two New York City Housing Authority complexes, Gowanus Houses and Wyckoff Gardens. Local Council members Brad Lander and Stephen Levin had said they would not support the rezoning unless the city committed to at least $132 million.

The city is also pledging $174 million in sewer upgrades and will require new development to meet new stormwater rules aimed at stemming sewage overflows into the infamously polluted Gowanus Canal, where a cleanup that was fiercely debated during the Bloomberg administration is underway.

The City Council also greenlit plans for a larger headquarters for the New York Blood Center at 310 East 67th Street. The proposal was approved despite objections from Council member Ben Kallos, who represents the area, and marked the first time since 2009 that the City Council has flouted member deference, or the tradition of voting with the local member on land use decisions.

The vote came after Council leaders reached a deal to reduce the height of the blood center building from 334 feet to 218 feet (233 with mechanical equipment). The project, which is being developed by Longfellow Real Estate Partners, would serve as an expanded headquarters for the New York Blood Center as well as office and lab space for other life science companies.

Kallos objected to the scale of the project and has called on the developer to reduce the height even further. The de Blasio administration, City Council leaders and Manhattan officials negotiated a deal without Kallos because they did not trust that he would reach an agreement that met their goals for the site.

On the Council floor ahead of the vote, Kallos said approval would send the message that “local council members don’t matter anymore” and would serve as a “blueprint for deep-pocketed developers to get whatever they want.”

Residents raise ruckus over displacement of theater synagogue and diner for luxury tower

NY Post

More than 3,500 residents have signed a petition to save the beloved Ohr Natan Synagogue — housed in an Art Deco-style building with an iconic clock tower — and the Trylon Theater & Tower Diner in Rego Park, according to a change.org petition.

The project was hotly debated at a Community Board 6 meeting Wednesday evening.

“This is one of the most cultural, social, significant, historical, and architectural sites of the community,” the petition proclaims. “The redevelopment plan would not only demolish historic buildings, but uproot a synagogue providing religious & humanitarian services, and likely pose an economic hardship on all the small businesses in the area.”

During the public hearing period at Wednesday night’s meeting, many locals voiced their opposition to the plan.

“This proposed change is not just disturbing, it is devastating,” Queens resident Carol Hagarty said in written testimony to the board.

“No accommodations are in place to preserve whatever is of historic, architectural, or social value on the block!” said Hagarty, who has lived in the area for over 40 years.

Another public commenter, Joanne Davis, wrote: “Build apartment buildings elsewhere. Raze ugly square buildings. Do not destroy this beautiful building.”

City Council Cronies give more tax breaks and zoning perks to developers if they build elevators for the MTA

Queens Chronicle 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority now will be enlisting private developers in its effort to make more subway stops handicapped accessible with a zoning change approved by the City Council on Oct. 7.

The Zoning for Accessibility initiative expands the areas where the city can offer incentives to developers of large projects near subway stations who allow easements for elevators, ramps or other accommodations.

When signed or enacted into law by mayoral inaction — Mayor de Blasio supports the bill — it will require developers of large projects that are adjacent to underground or elevated subway lines to consult with the MTA to determine if an access easement and infrastructure are needed.

In return, developers could receive one or more accommodations from the city, such as in increase in allowable density, more floor space, or partial relief from some zoning requirements for things like parking spaces, property line setbacks and landscaping.

In a statement from the MTA, acting Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said the move will augment the accessibility projects already underway within the agency.

“This initiative reflects Gov. Hochul’s and the MTA’s shared commitment to all New Yorkers — particularly riders with mobility disabilities, seniors and parents of young children — to modernize the entire transit system as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he said. And the help is needed.

Only 136 of the city’s 493 subway stations, or 28 percent, are accessible. In Queens the total is 22 out of 80, or 27.5 percent. That includes the Court Square station, where the No. 7 line is accessible but the G is not; and Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street, where the A train is accessible only during rush hours. The E and M trains at Court Square-23rd Street are only accessible for Manhattan-bound passengers.

The MTA’s five-year, $5 billion capital plan for 2020-24 includes elevators or other upgrades at 77 more stations, which in theory would leave a rider no more than two stations away from an accessible stop.

The MTA believes working with private developers will get more stations in compliance more quickly, with less strain on the MTA’s seemingly always-challenged budget.

“This is a game changer for millions of New Yorkers,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) said in the press release.

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid!

From the NY Post:

Monday’s poolside fundraiser took place at the home of developer Carl Mattone and was co-hosted by Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens), lobbyist William Driscoll and architect Gerry Caliendo.

This is bad. Queens is gonna get f*cked royally.

 JQ LLC here; the DSA is not running a candidate for mayor, but Adams did clarify and also revealed what votes and donor lucre he is pandering for to beat "Eric Sliwa" and it's the same real estate and corporate oligarchs who mobilized super pacs to counter and cripple DSA candidates that were running for council seats. 

 Adams is such a narcissist, I bet he mistakes everyone's names for "Eric"

Stierville revisited

 

QNS

Most of the communities in our neighborhood have smaller subdivisions within them  such as Liberty Park in Glendale and Winfield in Woodside — and Ridgewood is no exception.

For years, people referred to the northern area of the community near the Brooklyn/Queens border as “Upper Ridgewood.” Howard Beach has a couple of subdivisions — including Hamilton Beach and Ramblersville — and Bayside has the communities of Oakland Gardens, Windsor Park and Bay Terrace.

Few people, however, know about the “Stierville” section of Ridgewood. This actually is an antiquated name for the area of Ridgewood northwest of Myrtle Avenue and Fresh Pond Road where Paul Stier built hundreds of one- and two-family brick rowhouses in the early part of the 20th century that have withstood the test of time.

The story of Stierville and the man behind it is quite fascinating, yet comes to a tragic and sudden conclusion.

Stier, who constructed more than 750 homes in Ridgewood and Glendale, was born in Germany in 1874 and emigrated the United States at the age of 17. He first settled in upstate Buffalo, where he worked as a mason. He traveled around the state for a while, working at various construction sites, until finally settling in our neighborhood.

In 1898, he married Anna Muller, and four years later constructed his first home. By 1905, he built a row of two-family brick houses on the east side of what was then called Yale Avenue (currently 64th Place). Three years later, he purchased land on Foxall Street (now 69th Avenue) between Forest Avenue and Buchman Avenue (now 60th Lane). He purchased additional land on Edsall Avenue (now 70th Avenue) between Anthon Avenue (now 60th Street) and Buchman Avenue.

On this land, Stier constructed two-family brick homes sold for $5,600 each (less than one percent of the market value of a similar home in Ridgewood today); buyers had to offer a $500 down payment, then paid the remaining balance over time.

Each home had 11 rooms on two floors, plus two tiled bathrooms, separate furnaces in the basement and hardwood trim throughout the structure. But this was only the beginning for Stier, who built 200 homes the previous two years and had plans to build another 144 in the immediate years ahead.

 

 

 

All is forgiven Andrew

 

 NY Post

 What scandals?

Labor bosses and corporate CEOs showed their support for three-term Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a pricey campaign fundraiser Tuesday night despite ongoing investigations over sexual harassment accusations and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The minimum $10,000 per head and $15,000 per couple event was held at 75 Rockefeller Plaza, a building managed by the RXR Realty, a firm headed by Cuomo pal Scott Rechler. It attracted more than 170 people, a source familiar with the Cuomo re-election campaign said.

Rechler served as a Cuomo appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau, whose projects include Hudson Yards, also made an appearance at Cuomo’s first major in-person fundraiser since ending emergency edicts over the coronavirus pandemic.

Equally important for Cuomo was the appearance of some of New York’s most influential labor leaders.

George Gresham, president of the powerful health care workers union — SEIU Local 1199 — introduced Cuomo ahead of his 20 minute speech, a source said.

Other Big Labor attendees included Mario Cilento, president of the NYS AFL-CIO;; Gary LaBarbara, head of the New York Building and Trades Council; SEIU Local 32 BJ president Kyle Bragg; Stuart Appelbaum, head of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, and Dennis Trainor and Robert Masters of the Communication Workers of America, among others.

Also spotted heading into or leaving the fundraiser were public relations maven Ken Sunshine and lobbyist Charlie King, a longtime Cuomo confidante. King ran as Cuomo’s running mate during his failed 2002 bid for governor and served as executive director of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

Other lobbyists and lawyers appeared — including Robert Harding and others associated with Greenberg & Traurig. Harding, whose late father, Ray Harding, once headed the state Liberal Party, served as a deputy mayor for Rudy Giuliani.

 City Democratic leaders waved the Cuomo flag: attendees included Brooklyn Democratic Party chairwoman and Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, Manhattan Democratic leader Keith Wright, Staten Island Democratic leader and Assemblyman Michael Cusick, and Queens Democratic Party executive director Michal Reich.

The support for Cuomo clashes with many elected Democrats who called for Cuomo to resign over the sexual harassment claims — among them US Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Consternation QNS

 

LIC Post

 Western Queens residents, business leaders, and representatives from community groups and cultural institutions got the chance to weigh in on the proposed Innovation QNS development during a virtual meeting Monday afternoon.

Nearly three dozen people spoke during the two-hour Public Scoping meeting – with many in support of the massive, five-block residential and commercial project on the Astoria/Long Island City border as well as several who strongly opposed the plan.

The project’s developers are seeking approval of their proposed zoning changes to create a special mixed-use district – which would allow higher densities and a wider variety of uses than existing zoning. Their 2.9-million-square-foot plan includes 12 buildings, ranging in height from seven to 27 stories.

The developers submitted an environmental assessment statement in May as part of the environmental review process overseen by the Department of City Planning. Monday’s scoping meeting allowed members of the public to comment as part of this review.

Jerald Johnson of the firm Fox Rothschild gave a presentation to start the meeting on behalf of the development team. He described Innovation QNS – which is a partnership between Kaufman Astoria Studios, Silverstein Properties and Bedrock Real Estate Partners – as “a new vibrant, mixed-use community on what is currently an underutilized five-block area in Astoria.”

 Innovation QNS, which would be built between 37th Street and Northern Boulevard and bounded by 35th and 36th Avenues, would include about 2,800 residential units of various sizes – and house an estimated 8,300 new residents.

Approximately 25 percent of those units – about 711 – would be designated as permanently “affordable” under the city’s Mandatory Housing Inclusion (MIH) program. The developers plan to use MIH Option 1 – meaning that the units would be affordable, on average, to households making 60 percent of the Area Median Income – or $64,440 for a family of four in 2021.

Along with the 2.4 million square feet of residential space, the development would have about 250,000 square feet of office space and about 209,000 square feet of commercial space for retail, restaurants, a grocery store and the relocated multiplex movie theater, which currently is on 38th Street, the EAS documents show.

The plans also include about 108,000 square feet for community uses, like a daycare, community center and performing arts center, and 2.3 acres of publicly accessible open space.

Opponents of the Innovation QNS criticized the plan’s potential impact on local infrastructure. They also suggested that the project would gentrify the area, causing some current residents and businesses to be pushed out.

They also said the income requirements for “affordable” apartments would be out of reach of many neighborhood residents.

Developers clean up in a matter of days

Queens Post 

 City officials and local lawmakers celebrated the start of the environmental cleanup of Willets Point Wednesday — which paves the way for the redevelopment of the area.

Six acres of land near Citi Field is being remediated to prepare for the construction of three buildings that will include 1,100 affordable apartments, retail and community facility space. There will also be a stand-alone school and public open space.

The ceremonial groundbreaking follows nearly 15 years of wrangling over the fate of the area that has long been occupied by autobody shops and junkyards. The remediation work begins as the city looks to recover from the economic fallout caused by the pandemic.

“A recovery for all of us is happening right here in Queens,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio at the groundbreaking. “Willets Point represents the best of our comeback – new units of affordable housing, more school seats for our children, adding public space and detailed infrastructure improvements.”

The environmental remediation will remove contaminated soil in the brownfield-designated area and replace it with clean fill. Workers will also raise the ground so that the future buildings and infrastructure will be above the floodplain.

The remediation efforts will be completed in 2023. Infrastructure construction is expected to begin in 2022, followed by the construction of the apartment buildings and school in 2024.

The cleanup and first phase of construction will lead to more than 800 construction jobs, according to the city. Upon completion, nearly 200 permanent jobs will be created.

“The environmental cleanup is a critical step in the first phase of the Willets Point project,” said Council Member Francisco Moya, who noted that New York has been dealing with an affordable housing crisis and overcrowding in schools for some time.

“Today we are taking another critical step forward in tackling these issues,” he said.

Queens Post 

 A large development company has purchased the vacant lot next to St. Sebastian’s School in Woodside for $5.5 million.

United Construction and Development, which has a portfolio of mixed-use buildings throughout Queens, bought the vacant lot from St. Sebastian’s Roman Catholic Church on March 25.

The company confirmed that it purchased the 39-53 57th St. site under the name Woodside 57 Street Realty.

United Construction, located on Northern Boulevard in Corona, is a major player in several large developments in Queens.

It is part of a consortium of developers behind the 68-story Skyline Tower in Long Island City, the tallest building in Queens. It also is the developer of the Justice Avenue Tower in Elmhurst, near the Queens Place Mall.

The Woodside site, once a playground for school children at St. Sebastian’s, is large with a frontage on 57th and 58th streets. The property is 1/2 an acre in size.

On June 8, United Construction filed plans with the Dept. of Buildings calling for the site to be subdivided into 8 tax lots. The company has yet to file building plans.

Paul Graziano calls out Deputy Mayor Vicki Been during protest against Planning Together

  

The Village Sun

  Activists slammed Corey Johnson’s long-range planning bill as a “Trojan horse” for developers at a rally outside City Hall on Tuesday.

The temperature was freezing but passions were heated as speaker after speaker blasted the bill, Intro 2186, the City Council speaker and Mayor de Blasio at the press conference, organized by the Citywide People’s Land Use Alliance.

They derided the 10-year comprehensive planning initiative as “top-down” and “one-size-fits all.” They charged that it would cut the community out of the process and legally empower an unaccountable “director” to ram through district planning schemes — if necessary, over the objections of community boards and local councilmembers.

Most chilling to them was the fact that Intro 2186 would force mandatory upzonings every decade for every single community board in the city — in short, codifying an unstoppable development juggernaut.

Dozens of organizations supported the rally, from East River Park Action, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, the Soho Alliance and the Seaport Coalition to Preserve BAM’s Historic District, Voice of Gowanus, Inwood Preservation and Stop Sunnyside Yards.

Alicia Boyd of the Movement to Protect the People, which is fighting a development project that threatens the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, said the citywide plan is being spun as something that will help low-income black and brown people, when, in reality, it will mainly lead to an explosion of luxury development.

“This bill is being presented as an equalizer,” she railed. “Mandatory Inclusionary Housing is a failure. It’s a Trojan horse! This is not an anti-racist plan. This is not an anti-displacement plan. This is a displacement plan. We are tired of the scams [about] affordable housing.”

Paul Graziano, a Queens native and planning consultant, has played a role in helping contextually rezone much of Queens to keep overdevelopment in check.

“It’s been three months since Corey Johnson dropped this bombshell,” he told the rally. “This bill is not a comprehensive planning bill. It’s a comprehensive overdevelopment bill. It’s a comprehensive real estate bill. I have gone through this bill with a fine-tooth comb.”

In short, Graziano said, rezonings make the “speculative value” of property go up.

The Mandatory Inclusionary Housing included in the rezonings is a “scam,” he said.

“M.I.H. has not worked,” he said, “because there is no deep affordability. And it’s set up as a real estate program.”

 Graziano blasted Vicki Been, de Blasio’s deputy mayor of housing and economic development, calling her the engineer of the current upzonings. He said a report Been headed at New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy has been used “to justify upzonings for the last eight years.”

“Eighty percent of her data is wrong,” Graziano said. “You’ve got this administration running this phony agenda and you’ve got “Planning Together” looking to lock it in for 10 years. This horrendous bill…will lock it in.

“Planning Together” is a report, released in December, on which Intro 2186 was based.

 

Jimmy's got a brand new bag while his husband is bringing home the bread

 

He is a reborn union man fighting real estate and for the working man and woman according to his website - Jimmy Van Bramer for Queens Borough President

 BUT he is notoriously close to real estate developers! In 2013 campaign finance records below show he got at least  $6,350.00 from a developer's family, the Wolkoffs, related to the Five Points Development, which not only got a lucrative variance BUT ALSO the developer G&M Realty owner -AKA Jerry Wolkoff - didn't use all union labor as promised. The people of LIC got glass behemoths instead - thanks to Jimmy! He is also an old friend of big-time developer Stuart Suna.

 

 

 

NY Post

While City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer may have sworn off special interest cash, the same hasn’t been true for his husband — author and documentary filmmaker Dan Hendrick.

His 2017 documentary “Saving Jamaica Bay” is larded to the hilt with money from lobbyists and big real estate interests the councilman swore to avoid, a review by The Post shows.

The influential lobbyists singled out for thanks in the film credits include Uber lobbyist Patrick Jenkins, the founder of Patrick B. Jenkins & Associates; Jon R. Del Giorno, a founding member of Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno and lobbyist for the Yankees; Arthur Goldstein, a partner in Davidoff Hutcher & Citron and lobbyist for the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation; former NYU lobbyist Rose Christ, of Cozen O’Connor; and Joe Reubens, a partner at The Parkside Group who lobbied for AT&T.

Big real estate also chipped in, with The Durst Organization, Tishman Speyer Properties, the Real Estate Board of New York Foundation and others also thanked in the film credits.

Hendricks made no secret of the need for financing while making the film, telling local news he took in “hundreds of thousands” of dollars for the flick, which was narrated by Susan Sarandon. 

 “On the surface, it doesn’t look good,” said Betsy Gotbaum, a former city Public Advocate and current executive director of the good government group Citizens Union.

Developers licking their chops over CoJo's housing plan

From the Real Deal:

Predictably, a coalition of the city’s leading NIMBY groups blasted the City Council speaker’s proposal Thursday as a “top-down approach that would leave communities with even less democratic control over massive city rezonings” than they have now. 

Well, yes. That is exactly the point. 

Not to be anal, but this is not a direct democracy. It’s a republic. We elect leaders, who in turn run the government. We don’t let people with pitchforks decide what can be built where.

Riiiight, we elect representatives who vote on rezonings on our behalf. Unfortunately what Planning Together does is remove them, as well as community boards and the borough president, from the equation. Let's continue:

New York’s lone YIMBY group, Open New York, thinks Johnson’s plan should go further because “it fails to address longstanding practices that allow wealthier neighborhoods to block new housing and shunt demand elsewhere,” said board member Will Thomas. 

He was disgusted but hardly surprised by the letter from the anti-development groups including Village Preservation, Voice of Gowanus, Stop Sunnyside Yards, Soho Alliance and the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side. 

“We encourage legislators interested in more equitable city planning to ignore complaints by wealthy NIMBYs who are primarily interested in protecting the status quo,” Thomas said.

Wealthy NIMBYs? I think you'd better take a closer look at who signed the letter.

I think MTOPP, Fight for NYCHA and the Flushing Workers Center and others on the list would be surprised to find out that they represent wealthy neighborhoods.

When they have to misrepresent who you are, it means they are up to no good.