After many twists and turns, the fate of Ian Bruce Eichner’s Crown Heights project is scheduled to be decided next week.
The application for 962-972 Franklin Avenue is on the calendar for the City Council’s zoning subcommittee meeting Nov. 12 and the land use committee meeting the following day. The City Council could vote on the project Nov. 21. Votes will only be held if a deal is reached between the local City Council member and Eichner’s Continuum Companies.
Representatives for Council member Crystal Hudson could not be reached Friday. An attorney for Continuum would only say that the development team continues to have “productive discussions” with the Council.
This project hasn’t followed the usual path to approval and has been on the brink of death at times.
It last appeared to be doomed in September, when Eichner, following a modification of the project plan by the City Planning Commission, announced he would withdraw his application.
The commission had signed off on a 355-unit building with 91 to 106 income-restricted apartments and a lower height to address concerns that shadows would affect the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
At the time, representatives for Eichner said the changes made the project financially infeasible. The developer had pitched a taller project with 475 apartments, 119 of them affordable.
But last month Eichner said he would be willing to accept the new size if he could use a different affordability option under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. The rarely used workforce option requires that 30 percent of the housing is affordable, on average, to households making 115 percent of the area median income.
Unions whose members would build and staff the development have been putting pressure on Hudson. The Building and Construction Trades Council has scheduled a rally Tuesday to urge Hudson to support it. Many union households would qualify for the affordable units under the workforce option.
“We need to be reassured that our elected officials will not buy into these ongoing anti-development schemes led by special interest groups throughout the city,” BCTC’s Gary LaBarbera said in a statement. “We cannot afford to keep limiting these projects, as all it will result in is less pathways to the middle class, lower housing stocks, higher rents, and less good-paying career opportunities.”
What we’re thinking about: Will the Trump administration put an end to the criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: For the first time in at least 120 years, every governing party in the developed world that ran for re-election this year lost, according to New York Magazine and the Financial Times.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Police arrested Eduardo Diaz, 42, of Queens, on charges that he shot another man in the leg at West 68th Street and Columbus Avenue, the New York Times reports. Diaz faces charges of attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. The incident caused a frenzy at the 72nd Street station as police looked for Diaz.
— President-elect Donald Trump told Gov. Kathy Hochul that he wants to help make Penn Station “beautiful” again, the New York Post reports. It is not clear whether he is supportive of Hochul’s station expansion plan, which she has put on hold.
— On Tuesday, New York voters approved a ballot measure that enshrines abortion rights and adds anti-discrimination provisions to the state constitution. The measure expands the Equal Protection Clause to include “ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and sex — including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive health care and autonomy.” The impact of the changes would be limited, however, if a national abortion ban were approved, Gothamist reports.
Programming note: The Daily Dirt is taking a break for Veterans Day. It will return Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Friday was $28 million for a condo unit at 140 West 12th Street. The Greenwich Lane penthouse is 4,000 square feet. It sold for just $2 million more than a buyer paid in 2015 and below its initial asking price of $32 million. The Corcoran Group’s Richard Ziegelasch and Matt Barbey had the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale to hit property records was $100 million for 945 Madison Avenue. Auction house Sotheby’s bought the 77,000-square-foot, five-story landmark called the Breuer Building. The deal was reported in April 2023.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $7.5 million for a condo unit at 16 Jay Street in Tribeca. The apartment is 3,800 square feet. Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing. — Joseph Jungermann