Catsimatidis Tweaks Blueprints for Myrtle Project
The Brooklyn Paper follows up on (and expands upon!) the news Brownstoner broke a few weeks ago: Construction on John Catsimatidis’ large Myrtle Avenue project is “imminent.” According to the paper, Catsimatidis has tweaked his vision for the 660-unit project and now plans to eliminate a 200-unit affordable housing component and spread the development over…
The Brooklyn Paper follows up on (and expands upon!) the news Brownstoner broke a few weeks ago: Construction on John Catsimatidis’ large Myrtle Avenue project is “imminent.” According to the paper, Catsimatidis has tweaked his vision for the 660-unit project and now plans to eliminate a 200-unit affordable housing component and spread the development over four buildings, rather than two towers. The builder says he couldn’t secure enough city and state affordable housing bonds to build the below-market rate component, and that he’s constructing four smaller buildings rather than two towers because It’s a $500-million project, except that no bank has $500 million to loan, so we decided to break it up into four buildings.
Affordable Housing DOA [Brooklyn Paper] GMAP
Development Watch: Catsimatidis Ready to Go on Myrtle? [Brownstoner]
“low income households deserve to live in decent housing in decent up and coming neighborhoods.” okay. why should cats pay for it?
“if I can’t get the amount of bonds I want, I refuse to negotiate …” negotiate what? there is no grey here – city provides funding, cats includes affordable component. and what do you think he was trying to do for the past 6+ months? by negotiation do you mean that cats should provide the housing on his own dime in return for no benefit? if so, you can fault virtually every development in this manner.
by the way, i am in favor of affordable housing. however, your judgments of cats wrt this development are completely unfair and your expectations unrealistic.
11:13PM: Point well taken regarding high end retail. I did not consider this side of the argument. However, I would offer a more radical argument about the destructive nature of mass consumerism et al, but we should rather not argue in circles. My “quality of life” comment referred primarily to affordable housing, namely, that low income households deserve to live in decent housing in decent up and coming neighborhoods. I did not find C’s arguments on volume cap persuasive, to the point that the entire affordable component required gutting. There’s plenty of government money going around (some of which is much more attractive than the tax exempt bond financing + 4% low income housing tax credits), enough to sustain some component of affordability. If one factors in the 421-a changes that will affect this development, it probably will be more lucrative for C to include an affordable component in the project. His short-sightedness in entirely dismissing any affordable component says to me: “if I can’t get the amount of bonds I want, I refuse to negotiate, i.e. my care for the low income’s quality of life extends only so far as I can profit how I want from it, if I can’t make a quick buck off housing the poor, I could care less if they live in squalor.” It shows his true colors, surprise to everyone! /.CA
10:38: what do you mean by “quality of life in NYC”? It’s a completely subjective matter. If he builds higher-end retail that will certainly benefit everyone living in the neighboring high-end condos. On the other hand, it may disadvantage others in the neighborhood. Applying a paintbrush as wide as the city to the argument is a little disingenuous.
The Walt Whitman and Ingersoll projects are, to my knowledge, being vacated for MCIs, not for any demo plans. I believe that this was planned to run simultaneously with the redevelopment of Prospect Plaza under HOPE VI, which has been sitting gutted for over 8 years now. It speaks more for the federal government’s starvation of public housing funding, that repairs started cannot even be completed, as the waiting list grows. The Whitman Houses seem to be in pretty decent shape, compared to some other public housing projects. Re Castimidis – I’m sure he will apply for 421-a, and he can either purchase Negotiable Certificates or reserve 20% of the units as affordable @ 60% AMI. Which do you think he will choose? He seems more interested in filling his fat pockets than in the quality of life in NYC. Another idealistic republican billionaire for mayor, no thanks. And I bet that he will utilize as many Inclusionary bonuses as possible to push through this awful project. /. CA
by “people who think like you” i mean people who think anyone pro-development in brooklyn is “only in love with that part of brooklyn that is rich” and “Probably a displaced Manhattanite who can’t stand that he couldn’t afford to live near Bloomberg”
sickening.
5/24 4:53 – i’m in love with all of brooklyn except for people who think like you. i’ve been in bk since koch days. hopefully you won’t be here past bloomberg. you’ve lost your boro privileges cornball.
I think brooklynlove is only in love with that part of brooklyn that is rich. Probably a displaced Manhattanite who can’t stand that he couldn’t afford to live near Bloomberg.
Isn’t this great news for the people who have purchased units in Toren? Anyone living in the 12th floor or higher is guaranteed to get plenty of light (even if the view is not necessarily the most beautiful)?
Are you using the Royal “We?”