Industry City developers spent millions lobbying for a rezoning

More than $2 million in lobbying wasn’t enough to stop the Industry City rezoning from being delayed.

The waterfront complex is owned by Jamestown, Belvedere Capital and Angelo Gordon, and the companies hired five lobbying firms to work on their rezoning push, according to PincusCo. These were Capalino+Company, 99 Solutions, HR&A Advisors, Yoswein New York and the MirRam Group.

But these efforts were not enough to keep the local community board from requesting a delay in the rezoning process. Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball has agreed to slow things down.

The developers hope to add more than 1 million square feet of new construction to Industry City, along with two hotels with 420 rooms in total, educational space and large-scale retail space.

The process is far from dead despite the delay, but a spokesperson for local City Council member Carlos Menchaca told PincusCo that the issue was that Industry City did not disclose its plan for the area until September 2017.

“It doesn’t make sense to begin ULURP when the idea has only been on paper for a little more than a year and the community started a more comprehensive evaluation process last fall,” he said. [PincusCo] – Eddie Small