Fixing the subway system
Dumbo air rights sale must benefi t York Street station: Levin
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city must divert funds
from a multi-million-dollar
public air rights sale in Dumbo
toward the neighborhood’s ailing
York Street subway station,
according to a local pol.
Area Councilmember Stephen
Levin urged offi cials to
get a better deal for Dumbonians
out of a $17.2 million sale
of unusable city-owned development
rights below the Manhattan
Bridge, which would allow
a developer of an adjacent lot
to add offi ce and retail space to
its planned 26-story apartment
tower at 69 Adams St.
“I appreciate the need for
commercial space, I think that
that’s a valiant effort, but commercial
in and of itself is not a
community benefi t,” Levin
said at a virtual Council subcommittee
hearing Monday.
“There needs to be much more
going back to the community as
part of this deal to warrant the
sale of air rights, so just want to
make that very clear.”
The city’s business-boosting
arm, the Economic Development
COURIER L 16 IFE, MAR. 26-APR. 1, 2021
Corporation has applied
to hawk 98,446 square feet of air
rights below the bridge to borough
developer Rabsky Group
for its planned building at the
adjacent corner lot near Front
Street.
Rabsky, which bought the
plot next door from the Jehovah’s
Witnesses in 2016 for $65
million, can already build an
all-residential structure at the
same height without the sale,
but the proposed deal will allow
them to add that area as extra
bulk restricted to offi ce and retail
space, giving them about 63
percent more fl oor area.
The city and the developer
have pitched the project as a
boon for the local economy,
promising to add 438 permanent
offi ce jobs, 250 construction
jobs, and 30 permanent retail
and building maintenance
employment opportunities.
Residents, however, have
criticized the project for having
no affordable housing units
— all 225 apartments will be
market rate — and said that the
added offi ces were no benefi t at
all. They fear the added bulk
will only bring more commuters
to the neighborhood’s sole
subway station at York Street
that already suffers from dangerous
conditions.
The sale has to go through
the city’s lengthy Uniform Land
Use Review Procedure in which
the Council has veto power, and
the legislature usually sides
with the local Councilmember
— in this case Levin.
At the March 22 Council
hearing the pol, referencing
Brooklyn Paper’s recent reporting,
said the city needs to divert
funds from the sale to fi xing the
F train subway station, a busy
and bottlenecked stop with only
one way in and out.
MTA said last week it is
studying adding a second entrance,
but has remained tightlipped
about details of their
plans.
An EDC rep said the agency
and the developer were willing
to divert “a portion” of the
proceeds to Dumbo, including
supporting the MTA’s efforts,
but punted any commitments
until the state transit authority
reveals more details about
its study.
“We believe that the next
step would need to be some
type of conceptual design,
but as you know the city does
not control the MTA and so
we would need to follow their
lead,” said Eleni DeSiervo.
“From the EDC’s and Rabsky’s
perspective, we are committed
to investing a portion of these
proceeds back into the Dumbo
neighborhood and back into
the district.”
The Council has until April
30 to review the ULURP application.
Rabsky Group wants to build a 26-story luxury apartment and offi ce
tower at 69 Adams St. in Dumbo. Fischer + Makooi Architects/Rabsky Group
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