When a warehouse on the Williamsburg waterfront burned down earlier this year, it stoked speculation about possibilities for the premium land. During Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral administration, the city had promised to acquire the lot for parkland — but developers were also circling the site for potential residential development.
Those developers might be in luck, as it appears the city has no funds to acquire the land anyway, Crain’s reported.
“There are currently no acquisition dollars to acquire the CitiStorage site,” said Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Mitchell Silver during a City Council hearing.
The 11-acre site stretches from North 10th to North 12th streets and is home to CitiStorage warehouses. The building that burned down held many confidential government records.
So far, the city has completed a conversion to parkland on part of the promised plot. Bushwick Inlet Park is up and running from North 9th to North 10th Streets.
Silver said that the city is currently focused on the acquisition of a neighboring site that has for years been occupied by Bayside Fuel Corp., but has not been directing efforts to the CitiStorage site. [Crain’s] — Tess Hofmann