The one where Gail Brewer told two Midtown towers their $29.7M for the park 'doesn't count in my book

Community Board 4 is one of the most pro-housing boards in Manhattan, so when it told the council to deny the DeWitt Clinton Park North towers, that was the news. Two developers, an affiliate of Friedland Properties on 12th Avenue and an affiliate of Chapman Group on 11th Avenue, want to rezone two manufacturing sites at 801 11th Avenue and 629 West 54th Street into a 38-story and a 44-story mixed-use building. Together they would add 1,094 apartments, roughly 273 of them permanently affordable under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing option one. Auto showrooms would fill the three-story bases. The catch is the deal funding the height: the developers would buy unused floor area from Hudson River Park and pay the Trust no less than $29.7 million.

Councilmember Gail Brewer, who said she has signed off on 250 ULURPs, was not buying the framing. When the team pitched the $29.7 million as a community benefit, she cut in: that money buys them extra height, so 'that's not a donation, that's development higher. That doesn't count in my book.' She pressed on three fronts the board flagged: cut the 12th Avenue roof from 550 feet, push affordability past 25%, and add family-sized units. The applicants agreed to drop to 510 feet, to provide at least 15% family-sized units, and to integrate affordable apartments with identical finishes, but held to MIH option one because it aligns with the 485X tax break.

Paul Devlin, co-chair of CB4's land use committee, sharpened the fight. The board wants 30% affordability and workforce housing in the 100 to 125% AMI band, not another building full of 60% AMI units it already has plenty of. He noted a nearby 18 FAR project on 57th Street tops out at 385 feet, proof you can get density without height, and that the air rights here sell at $200 per square foot versus the $300 the Block 675 deal fetched. Hudson River Park CEO Noreen Doyle backed the transfer, saying the proceeds are earmarked to rebuild Pier 76, a 5.5-acre former NYPD tow pound sitting on 6,500 rotting piles.

Both DeWitt Clinton items were heard and laid over for continued negotiation. The Greenpoint Monitor Point hearing opened right after, with Councilmember Restler describing towers as tall as 56 stories of primarily luxury housing just feet from the long-promised Bushwick Inlet Park.