Community Board 9 last night gave a resounding thumbs down to the proposed Bedford Union Armory redevelopment with the market-rate condominium portion of the project the main sticking point.
The unanimous vote with one abstention came amid a steaming hot auditorium at M.S. 61 at 400 Empire Boulevard with dozens of housing advocates, local residents and elected officials weighing in mainly against the project.
Under the proposal being considered, the city would enter into a 99-year lease with BFC Partners to develop the 138,000-square-foot city-owned site, which will cost nearly $1 billion to redevelop into a mixed-use facility including a state-of-the-art recreational center, and commercial space – both of which are being offered at discounted rates to local residents and non-profits in need of affordable rents.
The housing portion includes 330 rental units with 50 percent affordable housing for low- and middle-income families, and 56 market-rate condominiums, of which 13 will be affordable to middle-income families based on the New York City area median income (AMI), which is considerably more than the local Crown Heights AMI.
When first announced, several lawmakers hailed the project, but have since backed away from it following a vocal public outcry that the site should have 100 percent affordable housing, especially given the need for such housing and that the site is city-owned.
It also has become a thorny political issue for City Council Member Laurie Cumbo (D-Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights), who is facing a tough primary challenge from Ede Fox. Cumbo originally backed the project, but recently decided she was against it.
“For me the main point we could not move past, were the luxury condominiums that were part of this project. I explained that I would not, could not support a project with 58 units of market rate housing on our public land. That’s a non-starter for me and a non-starter for all elected officials that represent this community,” said Cumbo at the meeting prior to the CB9 vote.
Fox also asked the board to vote ‘No’ in recommending the proposal.
“This project is bad for this community and bad for our future. Any project that takes city-owned property and turns it into any amount of market rate housing. Is a ‘win-win’ for developers and a ‘lose-lose’ for this community,” said Fox.
One of the night’s most controversial voices was Alicia Boyd, the outspoken leader of The Movement To Protect The People (MTOPP) organization, who promised to fight the project all the way to the courts.
“Never in the history of this city, has one-third of a city block been given to anyone for a dollar. For two years this community has been fighting this development but we have forgotten one thing, this land is ours! Public land does not belong to the Mayor! Does not belong to Laurie Cumbo1 it belongs to the people! I believe the courts need to be involved in this deal, this needs to go to a judge!” said Boyd.
However, BFC Partners feel differently about the condos, seeing them as a necessary “trade-off” in order to supply funding to the planned recreational center.
“The condominiums provide funds needed to develop the recreation and community center and revenue generated by market-rate housing ensures that the rec center remains sustainable, affordable to the community and well-maintained for many generations to come,” read a statement from BFC Partners.
BFC Partners said that the proposed plan meets all the “direction and feedback they received through the City’s community outreach and engagement dating back to 2012.”
However, when a local resident pushed the City’s Economic Development Corporation representative Lydia Downing for a direct answer on whether the condos were part of any feedback they received, Downing answered with a definitive “no.”
Many housing advocates have proposed turning the vacant lot into a public land trust. The trust would be exclusively in the hands of the Crown Heights community to set-up affordable housing and other community projects without the interjection of private developers. They did not provide any answers on how this would be funded.
The proposed plan will now move on to Borough President Eric Adams’s office, then to the City Planning Commission, then on to the City Council for review and finally to Mayor Bill de Blasio. The City Council makes the official vote on the project’s approval or denial.
CB 9 will have a chance to include their recommendations to the proposal in the coming days before the project lands before Adam’s desk. BFC Partners seem to believe that a “positive resolution will be reached during the land-use process that will eventually allow for the project to move forward.
