De Blasio won’t slow NYC development boom: OPINION

Several major real estate projects in the city are plowing forward in the early stages of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, despite concerns about the changing climate for development, according to a columnist for the New York Post.

De Blasio will likely not interrupt several previously approved projects, including the 1.9 million-square-foot Seward Park urban-renewal project near the Williamsburg Bridge, known as Essex Crossing. Meanwhile, progress continues at 1 World Trade Center, Hudson Yards, Manhattan West and Jeff Sutton’s Whole Foods-anchored Harlem project, at 100 West 125th Street, Post columnist Steve Cuozzo asserted.

But developers might have a more difficult time negotiating zoning variances at select sites, Cuozzo wrote. And projects that aren’t fully approved could still have trouble getting tax breaks.

Related Companies and Sterling Equities’ $3 billion redevelopment of Willets Point in Queens, approved by City Council in October, will need additional “help from City Hall” for the forthcoming second phase, Cuozzo argued, as will the conversion of the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, which is still in ULURP.

The city’s funding of the No. 7 subway extension to Hudson Yards was a big-ticket move under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg – the kind not expected during de Blasio’s run. [NYP] — Mark Maurer