Brewer on DeWitt Clinton Park North development

Councilmember Brewer, you're first on the list.

Thank you.

I just want to talk about the 629 West 54th Street and 801 11th Avenue, which we'll be voting on today.

10,054 units, 280.

87 or a little bit more are there affordable.

There are some that are very affordable as part of MI8, and then we negotiate another 12 to 14 at a higher AMI.

It's still challenging.

We wanted some workforce housing.

We got just a little bit.

These developers are contributing $200,000 to a nearby park, but I have to be honest with you, the park needs $12 million, to be honest with you.

It's a little bit lower in terms of height, these buildings, but we're worried about the shadow on the park.

Luckily, there are car dealerships with good paying jobs, union jobs that will be in the buildings.

The most interesting part, as the speaker mentioned, is that $29.7 million at least will be given to the Hudson River Park Trust.

It will hopefully not only does increase FAR, obviously, of the buildings, that's the purpose of it, but it will also help the trust pay for pilings under Pier 76, which was the toll pound for Manhattan.

I just want to say that because of the length of time allowed to construct up to 10 years as part of this permit, I want to make sure that the Hudson River Park Trust enters into an agreement with the developers.

They want to make sure it's binding to this particular development because even if alternative becomes available later, we want to make sure that the money goes to the trust and the promise is the promise.

I want to thank Board 4, particularly Joe Resticcia and Paul Devlin and the Land Use Division of the City Council.

I just want to say the developers also say they're not going to build if they get a no amendment to 485X.

I don't know where that's going to go, but they are obviously very concerned about it.

I have to say when you're on private land and you're in Manhattan, I wish the city would give us more, either some vouchers or some other ways of having more units be affordable.

And there should be a 30% of the entire square footage, not 25 or 30% of the number of units.

Manhattan has transportation, we have good schools, and darn it, we should be able to get more affordable housing.

I appreciate that they go to other boroughs because they all say it costs less on terms of the purchase.

But I thank everybody involved and just wish we could do more affordable.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Ressler, followed by Santos Suoso.