Activists are calling on Carmelo Anthony to pull back his support for an affordable housing project being co-developed by Slate Property Group.
Bertha Lewis, president of the Black Institute, said the Knicks star should halt his involvement in the redevelopment of the Bedford Union Armory, the New York Daily News reported. Anthony’s foundation is helping to fund a sports center at the 500,000-square-foot site, which also features 12 townhouses, market rate and affordable units.
“This development is not good for Crown Heights, and it’s not good for Brooklyn,” Lewis wrote in a letter from the Black Institute and New York Communities for Change.
Slate [TRDataCustom] is developing the site along with BFC Partners.
Community groups have spoken out against the redevelopment project, saying that the city shouldn’t allow Slate to continue to work on it due to the developer’s role in the Rivington House debacle. Slate, along with Adam America and China Vanke, bought the Rivington House for $116 million in February, and plan to convert the nursing home into luxury condos.
Last month, the city’s Department of Investigations issued a report showing that a Slate representative had urged the firm to keep quiet about its deal with the Allure Group until the owner succeeded in getting the deed restriction lifted at 45 Rivington Street. City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s a report last week that claimed that Allure plotted for months to turn the property into luxury condos or a hotel. [NYDN] — Kathryn Brenzel