Rheingold conversion nabs City Planning approval

Rendering of the Rheingold Brewery conversion site
Rendering of the Rheingold Brewery conversion site

Bushwick’s Rheingold rezoning plan has been given the go ahead by the City Planning Commission despite widespread protest from area residents.

Developer Read Property’s plan, which involves constructing 70- and 80-foot towers with 977 apartments on the 6.4-acre site of the former Rheingold Brewery at the intersection of Flushing and Bushwick avenues, would transform an industrial chunk of the neighborhood into a sleek mini-neighborhood.

A proposal with no modifications made it through CPC approval with a unanimous vote in support.

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“I think they want to push this [rezoning] forward before the administration changes and don’t want anything to stop it,” Nadine Whitted, chair of Community Board 4, told DNAinfo. The board had been on the cusp of approving the rezoning, but wanted to see additional affordable housing included.

Whitted, for her part, had been criticized by residents for conducting a “private and illegal” vote in a closed community board session. [DNAinfo]Julie Strickland