[NYguy]

http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes....2-story-tower/

Little Room For Negotiation on 42-Story Tower


Drew Spitler, director of development for the Dermot Company, shows the renderings of 29 Flatbush Avenue at a community board meeting.

By NICHOLAS RIZZI
March 11, 2011

The permits have already been granted and construction has began at the 42-story building planned for 29 Flatbush Avenue, but at Wednesday’s Community Board 2 meeting, local politicians continued to try to push the developer for more community space and work for women- and minority-owned businesses.

They had little success. A representative of the developer, Dermot Company, Inc., said there are no plans to add any community spaces, and that the building’s gym and two rooftop gardens are only for those who will live in the building.

“The tenants will have access to our amenities,” said Drew Spitler, Dermot’s director of development. “It is not open to the public.”

Construction on the 327-unit rental building, on Fulton Street and Rockwell Place near BAM, should be completed in June 2013, said Art Bonetti, the project executive for the development. The development, which will also include 7,600 square feet of retail space on Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street and a 200-car parking garage, received all the necessary permits to begin laying the foundation in December, according to the Department of Buildings website. The project began construction that month.

Planning for this block goes back more than two decades. A 1986 land use application related to the Brooklyn Center Urban Renewal Plan authorized the transfer of a small parcel of city-owned property to The Dermot Company for the project, said CB2 District Manager Robert Perris. The building’s current height and density was made possible by a rezoning that was part of the 2004 Downtown Brooklyn Development Plan. In December, New York State kicked in $99 million in financing, with the requirement that the developers set aside 20 percent of the units for tenants that make up to $39,600 for a family of four.

Out of the 327 apartments, 66 will be set aside for affordable housing, with prices ranging from $555 to $891, Mr. Bonetti said. He could not provide figures for how much the market-rate apartments will rent for.

In February, Democratic District Leader Lincoln Restler, along with City Councilwoman Letitia James, State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, sent a letter asking the developers to add community spaces, increase the number of affordable units, and set up targets to increase the percentages of contracts awarded to women- and minority-owned businesses and those that hire locally.

“I would hope this developer would be more responsive to our community needs,” said Mr. Restler. “It doesn’t seem that the Dermot Company seems interested in addressing housing and public spacing.”

During the presentation, Mr. Restler again raised the issue of adding more construction contracts set aside for local women- and minority-owned businesses. The state set a 9-percent goal for the Dermot Company in 2010, Mr. Spitler said, adding that the project has gone beyond that percentage — it currently sets aside 15 percent of the contracts to businesses owned by women and minorities.

“We have exceeded the target a fair amount already,” Mr. Spitler said. “We are working at getting that number even further.”

Mr. Restler said he still thought the number was low, and compared it to the 45-percent target that the Navy Yard has set for its development.

“That’s the kind of target we expect to see in our community for responsible development,” Mr. Restler said. The 9 percent that the state mandated is “a pretty modest target to be thinking about a project of this scale,” Mr. Restler said.