Last November, the Eagle was the first to report that the Brooklyn Bridge Park project was delayed in part because the city, realizing it would be funding the park’s entire maintenance budget through earmarked property taxes, wanted greater control over the park once completed.
And in August, the Eagle reported that the project, according to many involved, was woefully under-financed with portions of the park missing from the original budget, which at the time of publication had yet to be revised.
Since that time, the fact that $153 million is inadequate to complete the gleaming 85-acre-park-and-development project has become conventional wisdom (though when the money was committed more than four years ago, construction costs were significantly lower).
Back in November, a spokesman for the Empire State Development Corporation told the Eagle that contracts for work on the park totaled $37 million. Though only $23 million had been paid, as reported in the Eagle’s August article, correspondences with Development Corporation officials showed bills racked up faster than the account could be replenished.
Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation’s new president, Regina Myer (her appointment also was first predicted by the Eagle), told The New York Observer this week, “Since this project was originally scoped, construction costs have absolutely exploded.”
And a city official told the Observer the Bloomberg administration offered to put up a large portion of the needed money, but asked the state to consider changing the governance structure of the park’s Development Corporation, a state subsidiary, so the city would have more power.
Like many before Myer, she pointed out that the money already committed to the city and state project is enough to at least get some of it built, and predicted the first portion would open in 2009. That’s an important contrast to other city and state projects that are designed, then funded, making their future more dependent on economic forces.
Meanwhile, the New York Post poked fun at what they said is the third event dubbed “the official groundbreaking of the park,” a dream 20 years in the making that turned into a nightmare for some locals who oppose the park’s reliance on condos to fund its maintenance. But this time, it’s for real, said a spokesman for the Development Corporation. Several people have told the Eagle the well-liked Myer will be more effective at moving the project forward than her predecessor, who they said had alienated herself from nearly everyone in the community and government.
The “first phase” includes demolishing the Purchase Building and structures on four piers. While some at a meeting held by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy objected to the simultaneous demolition of the pier structures because it would prevent interim uses there, officials said the move would be more financially frugal, a positive sign from the new leadership.
According to the construction timeline (which had April 2007 as its start date), Pier 6 is the last to have its structures demolished, though it’s directly adjacent to One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the luxury condominium conversion by RAL Companies & Affiliates. This should calm some concerns that the park is merely intended to become the city’s most obnoxiously opulent private front yard for a handful of condos, as the Development Corporation has held off on issuing Request for Proposals for the other development parcels and is saving Pier 6 until last.
RAL CEO Robert A. Levine has likely been pushing to get the overall park’s construction started as it’s one of his development’s main selling points. The address was changed from 360 Furman St. to One Brooklyn Bridge Park and the sales office features a wall-sized map of the project.
He also has some level of influence. Back when the weather was still warm, at an event for the condo aboard the New York Water Taxi, Levine told the Eagle his company picked the industrial gray color as the official color of all buildings within the park. He’s painting his building that color to rid it of the “Jehovah’s Witnesses stigma” attached to the sand-like color donning other Witnesses’ buildings.
The park’s delayed construction isn’t keeping celebrities away from One Brooklyn Bridge Park, according to New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer. Model Bridget Hall; Tyra Banks, a model better known today for hosting the reality television show “America’s Next Top Model” and her own talk show; and actress Hillary Swank are all said to be interested in (the latter two were spotted at the building).
Though the Eagle is no oracle, despite budgeting difficulties, all signs point to progress at the park in 2008 after what essentially seemed like a dead year — with the exception of the Floating Pool Lady, one of the coolest things to happen in the city last summer.
— Sarah Ryley
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues.
So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
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