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Eric Adams Officially Recommends Condo-Free Bedford-Union Armory Project
By
David Colon
Published Sep 3, 2017
Modified Sep 3, 2017
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Scott Heins/Gothamist
By
David Colon
Published Sep 3, 2017
Modified Sep 3, 2017
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Following up on a vow he made when City Council Member Laurie Cumbo announced her opposition to the deal to convert the Bedford-Union Armory into a mixed-use development with both recreational, retail and residential elements, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams announced his official disapproval of the project in a press release this weekend.
Adams, who appeared with Cumbo, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James to announce they all wouldn't support the project, asked for a series of changes to the controversial Crown Heights development.
"This is our opportunity to get this right," Adams said in a statement about his recommendations for the development, slated to add office and retail space, a swimming pool, basketball courts, market rate and affordable apartments and luxury condos.
For starters, Adams called for the project to ditch the 58 luxury condos currently included in developer BFC Partners. In the place of luxury housing, Adams suggested a larger number subsidized apartments for both extremely low and extremely high earners.
In the case of the upper-tier affordable units, Adams says that they "could offset some of the operational costs incurred by the recreational center." He also called for all of the affordable units to be made permanently affordable, and for a larger share of the apartments capable of housing larger families. The borough president previously made the inclusion of more "family-size" units a condition for his support of the development proposed for a plot of land in Williamsburg formerly owned by Pfizer.
The deal for the armory development currently calls for 330, or half, of the apartments to be affordable. However, 18 would be set aside for residents making 37 percent of the city's Area Median Income, 49 set aside for renters making 50 percent of the AMI and 99 for people making 110 percent of the AMI. That imbalance has fueled criticism that the project will put upward pressure on rents.
Adams additionally called for 20 percent of the affordable units to be set aside for the "Our Space Initiative," an HPD program that places homeless families making 30 percent or less of the AMI in recently-built affordable housing.
The borough president's recommendations will be heard at a public meeting of the City Planning Commission on the development on September 19th.
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bedford union armory
Crown Heights
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David Colon
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