November 22–28, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 5
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of 78 units, spokesman Felipe
Cortes told Community
Board 3’s Land Use Committee
Wednesday.
The agency filed a land use
review application to sell the
properties for $1 to Manhattan
firm Fulcrum Properties
along with Queens developers
Jobe Development Corporation
and the Briarwood
Organization who will jointly
construct the buildings at the
following addresses:
• Two five-story buildings
with 10 units each at
423-421 and 440-444 Herkimer
St.
• A four-story building
with eight units at 35-37
Rochester Ave.
• A four-story building
with 15 units at 18-22 Suydam
Pl.
• A four-story building
with 12 units at 816 Herkimer
St.
• A five-story building
with 10 units at 329-331
Ralph Ave.
• A seven-story building
with 13 units at 335 Ralph
Ave.
The entire portfolio features
34 one-bedroom and 44
two-bedroom units priced in
line with the federally-designated
Area Median Income
(AMI) index of the Five Boroughs,
which this year is set
at $96,100 for a three-person
family.
However, Bedford-Stuyvesant’s
median household income
in 2017 was significantly
lower at $52,900,
according to a report by
New York University’s Furman
Center, and condos constructed
under the proposed
deals would be priced for residents
with annual salaries
between $64,020 to $105,633
per year — $11,120 to $52,733
above the area’s average income.
Another development
includes a four-story building
with eight units at 35-37
Rochester Ave.
David Cunningham Architecture
Planning
But the development
would bring Mayor Bill de
Blasio closer to his stated goal
of creating 300,000 belowmarket
rate housing units
by 2026.
As of July, more than
135,000 “affordable housing”
units have been constructed
since hizzoner declared
his target back in 2014,
with 25,299 created in fiscal
year 2019, according to
the city.
Not all of the city’s affordable
housing schemes have
been well received, especially
those involving the sale of
public land.
In 2017, the Legal Aid Society
sued the city to prevent
the Economic Development
Corporation from leasing out
the publicly-owned Bedford-
Union Armory in Crown
Heights to developer BFC
Partners, which agreed to
construct a mix of marketrate
and affordable units,
along with a state-of-theart
recreation center.
Opponents of that scheme
blasted the deal — the early
incarnations of which featured
a host of luxury condos
— as a giveaway to developers,
which they feared would
supercharge gentrification in
the neighborhood.
But the developer agreed
to ax the luxe condos and enhance
the project’s affordable
housing components,
and a judge later dismissed
the Legal Aid suit in July
last year.
Before the city can sell
off its property to developers,
City Council will have
to approve the land transfer
following a lengthy public review
process, through which
the builders will also seek
an Urban Development Action
Area Project designation,
which carries a 20-year
exemption from real estate
taxes on the assessed value
of the building.
The city and developers
will present the proposal at
the civic panel’s next full
board meeting which will
then give its purely advisory
vote on Dec. 2.
New greenspace planned for Bushwick
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Bushwick is due for a new
$720,000 community garden
courtesy of state revitalization
funds, which will serve
the neighborhood as both an
oasis for green thumbs and
an outdoor events center, according
to a project rep.
“People would like a space
where they can do some gardening,”
said Gary Dearborn,
an architect with New
York Restoration Project,
told Community Board 4’s
Parks and Recreation committee
meeting on Thursday.
“They’re also interested
in, ‘Can we host our organization
on your property?
Could we host a jobs fair?
Could we host a composting
demonstration for other
like-minded folks? Could we
teach people how to prune
fruit trees? Could we have
artist exhibits?’”
The nonprofit garden
builder currently uses the
50-by-200-foot space on Aberdeen
Street between Bushwick
Avenue and the Evergreens
Cemetery to store
trucks and equipment used
to maintain other community
lawns in the area, according
to Dearborn.
Now, the greenery advocates
want to revamp the lot
into a sprawling communal
space courtesy of Governor
Cuomo’s “Vital Brooklyn”
initiative — a $1.4 billion revitalization
fund that features
$3.1 million earmarked for 20
community gardens across the
borough — with construction
starting in fall 2020, and wrapping
by the end of that year,
Dearborn said.
According to a draft design
Dearborn presented at the
committee, the planned new
park will be divided into three
parts — including a section for
fruit trees and garden plots bordering
Aberdeen Street.
In the middle of the space,
the group is hoping to build an
open plaza with picnic tables
and a restroom inside a shipping
container — which would
also have a canopy extending
out of it to provide shade on
sunny days.
The rear section of the space
would continue to provide car
parking and storage for the organization,
but that area could
be cleared for special events,
Dearborn said.
Photo by Kevin Duggan
Green space advocates
want to transform an
overgrown lot on Aberdeem
Street into a
community garden.
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Once completed, the park
will be open for at least 20
hours a week — and the gardeners
tend to the space, according
to Dearborn.
Bushwick residents enjoy
less open space as compared to
the rest of the city, with a ratio
of only 0.7 acres per 1000 residents,
amid a rezoning proposal,
called the Bushwick Community
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