State halts de Blasio’s affordable housing on Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park
‘Pay to play’ suspicions cited
In a stunning development, the state-controlled Empire State Development (ESD) agency told New York City on Monday it would not approve — for now — Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to allow affordable housing at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The decision came after the ESD reviewed a tangled web of connections between real estate developers, a lobbyist with global connections and the mayor’s now-shuttered Campaign for One New York, the subjects of ongoing investigations involving the mayor.
According to sources, the ESD was set to approve this week a modification of the park’s General Project Plan (GPP) to allow the city to include 117 units of affordable housing in the 339 total units planned for two luxury condo towers on Pier 6.
This angered a coalition of local groups — the Brooklyn Heights Association, Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund and People for Green Space Foundation – who called the potential approval a “back room deal between the city and state to permit unnecessary development on Pier 6.”