A metal fabricating company currently housed in Willets Point within the footprint of the city’s $3 billion mixed-use development project bought a $3 million parcel that is more than three times the size of its current location about a mile north in College Point.
Feinstein Iron Works, which produces structural steel, bought the approximately 118,000-square-foot parcel near the intersection of 31st Avenue and College Point Boulevard on Dec. 16 from the city’s Economic Development Corporation, property records published Tuesday show. At the same time, the city gave to the industrial firm a $3 million purchase money mortgage, city records show. [more]
Posts Tagged ‘economic development corporation’
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The city is kicking off a search today for companies that would install 50,000 square feet worth of solar panels atop the Brooklyn Army Terminal’s main industrial building, according to the Post. The $10 million project would result in the largest solar-energy system in the city, partially powering the 97-acre office and industrial complex in Sunset Park and two smaller city-owned sites that haven’t been picked out yet. If it succeeds, the Bloomberg administration is looking to replicate the technology elsewhere, including at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. [more]
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David Walentas
Dumbo development kingpins David and Jed Walentas are on track to restart their stalled, 73-room hotel project in Williamsburg if the city approves the designation of $15 million in federal stimulus funding towards the “shovel-ready” project today, according to the Brooklyn Paper. The boutique hotel, on Wythe Avenue and North 11th Street, would be borne of a renovation of a five-story former textile factory. In 2008, the city rejected the Walentases’ $3.6 million plan for the building, which would have doubled its height. But today, their Two Trees Management is among three developers awaiting a decision from the city about who will receive funding, and how much. It wouldn’t be the only new luxury hotel in the transforming Northside area of Williamsburg, once filled with factories and row houses, as another is slated to open next year. Two Trees says the project will create 75 construction jobs and 195 permanent jobs, though the city pegs the estimate as significantly lower. [Brooklyn Paper]
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Pier A, which for more than two decades has sat vacant and dilapidated at the southernmost point of Manhattan, may need to wait four additional months before getting its scheduled revamp because of a contract dispute, according to Downtown Express. The Battery Park City Authority lost its construction manager and general contractor in a span of just two days after the former was found to have insufficient resources to complete the project and the latter upped its asking price by $1.7 million. The BPCA is now seeking a replacement for the general contractor position, with applications due June 30. The construction manager role has already been filled — but the new firm, LiRo Group is more expensive. As a result of the turnover, the project has been pushed back from next April to late Summer 2011. Still, the $30 million grant from the New York City Economic Development Corporation should be more than enough to fund the project, BPCA officials said. It is slated for completion in 2012. [Downtown Express]
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In addition to getting a request from Deloitte for a $20 million subsidy package today, the city’s Industrial Development Agency is slated to present a reworked subsidy package for Reuters, which was given up to $26 million in incentives from the Giuliani administration, the Observer reported. Reuters received the $26 million incentive package — intended to promote job growth — in 1998, but according to the city about $20 million remains unused. In 2008, Reuters merged with Thomson and now, with a larger workforce and more office buildings, Thomson Reuters wants to extend the subsidy to all its buildings, at least in part to help get a break on renovation costs, according to the Observer.
The city and Reuters reworked the proposed deal, with the city adding new restrictions tied to job growth to access some of the subsidy. The city also proposed to extend the length of the deal by another four years. Opponents, such as Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, criticized the city for an alleged lack of transparency and mistreatment of workers, and called for the Bloomberg administration to delay the approvals. Bill O’Meara, president of the Newspaper Guild of New York, also voiced opposition to the deal, saying that the city should not be giving taxpayers’ money to a foreign-owned company. Julie Wood, a spokesperson for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, countered their claims by highlighting the growth incentives in the reworked deal. [NYO]
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A Manhattan-based think tank has pitched a plan for the development of
a mile of empty space under the Metro North tracks in Harlem from 111th
to 133rd streets along Park Avenue, in an effort to grow the retail
market in the neighborhood. The Center for an Urban Future has entitled
the plan, which is targeting the development of small businesses and
food retailers in particular, “A High Line for Harlem.” The report
suggests that the project would not only attract tourists, but would
also serve the community with neighborhood staples, like supermarkets.
In the report, the center names support from the city’s Economic
Development Corporation, which controls the site, as key to the plan’s
success. TRD -
After receiving a critical audit from city Comptroller John Liu, the
New York City Economic Development Corporation has agreed to hand over
more than $120 million in rental payments to the city by 2014,
according to the New York Times. The funds, which the agency gleans
from Times Square lease payments, are among the $125 million that the
group allegedly improperly hoarded, Liu charged in his audit. The EDC,
which oversees economic growth projects across the five boroughs, will
hand over over $20 millioin per year, budget documents show. While some
say the EDC’s move is a nod to the mounting criticism in the audit’s
wake, agency spokesperson David Lombino described the move as
“optimal.” [NYT] -
Greenpoint is getting a new public pier and ferry, and the city has
launched an effort to find an operator, the Brooklyn Paper reported.
The pier, at the end of Java Street, is intended to accommodate the
residential community expected to grow out of the waterfront area’s
2005 rezoning, according to the Economic Development Corporation.
Currently submerged, the pier lies on one of the only city-owned pieces
of land on the Greenpoint waterfront, though that’s partially in
dispute. One private landowner claims that part of the dock is his,
though the city contends that it owns the full site. The EDC will also
soon seek bids for an operator who will contribute to a “more
sustainable and comprehensive East River ferry service” with a new
ferry outpost located at the end of India Street, the EDC said. [Brooklyn Paper] -
The city’s Economic Development Corporation issued a request for proposal today for a developer to construct a new building for the National Jazz Museum and ImageNation Sol Cinema in Harlem, Crain’s reported. The city-owned 10,000-square-foot abandoned site was the former home of Mart 125, at 260 West 125th St, between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Frederick Douglass boulevards, across from the Apollo Theater. Two years ago, the city issued a request to jumpstart the redevelopment of Mart 125. Last year, as a result of submissions to that first request, the city selected the two cultural institutions to occupy the redeveloped site. Also in Harlem, the city recently said it would give $19.8 million to build a hotel on 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, and construction began on the East Harlem Media, Entertainment and Cultural Center on three vacant lots between 125th and 127th Street, from Second to Third Avenues, slated for completion in 2016. [Crain's]
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The Hive at 55, the Downtown Alliance’s shared workspace at 55 Broad Street, welcomed 11 stranded employees from a Denmark-based creative media agency today as they waited out the lingering volcanic ash cloud that has paralyzed European air travel this week. The workers, who wrote on their blog that they had traveled to New York City for last week’s “99 Percent” conference at the Times Center, set up shop at the 4,000-square-foot space that was set up last year with financial support from the city’s Economic Development Corp. and landlord Bill Rudin. The Hive, which was intended for the media industry, has space for upwards of 30 people and offers a kitchen, lounge and conference room in addition to desks and private offices. Membership ranges from $25 per day to $500 per month. TRD
