Park Construction Starts Today

By on December 15, 2008 7:44 am in News

The Brooklyn Paper reports that construction on some areas of Brooklyn Bridge Park is “supposed to” begin today:

Brooklyn Paper: Work on…: “Work begins on Monday,” said Regina Myer, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, at a board meeting on Friday afternoon.

Myer also proudly told the board that work will commence in January on the playground, dog run and concessions on Pier 6, the controversial $300-plus-million park and condo development’s southern end near the foot of Atlantic Avenue.

She also said that work would begin on an embattled plaza beneath the Brooklyn Bridge next month, though it is unclear if that is possible, given the city’s insistence that it needs the land for repairs to the Brooklyn Bridge.

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  • Publius

    I’m convinced that Regina Meyer is well intentioned and hard working and that after many years she’s trying to get “a park” built and quickly as the State’s financial situation goes from bad to worse.

    Having said that, I have serious concerns about the lack of community involvement in planning this park. There’s been lip service paid to input from the various Brooklyn communities of Brooklyn.

    There’s been “top down” bureacratic planning from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp, a Pataki-created state authority with little oversight or accountability that emphasises park aesthetics over usability.

    The budget of this park has exploded over the year, as has the estimates for annual maintenance, and there’s been little transparency about how these numbers were derived.

    Before costly mistakes are made, there should be more direct community involvement in the planning of park features (since it’s our tax money that’s being spent, and we’re the ones who are going to use the park when it’s done).

    I call on our elected State officials, including newly elected State Senator Daniel Squadron to live up to campaign promises about BBP auditing and oversight–and to do it quickly. This is a state project and requires our electeds in Albany to mind the store.

    This is not to mention the continued reliance on luxury housing as a means to pay for the annual park maintenance, when for over a year, 360 Furman has been on sale and it’s still less than half sold. It’s highly doubtful that any developer (or any finance company backing a developer) would undertake two new construction when the existing and completed 360 Furman isn’t selling well.

  • Nancy

    Rumors of the death of 360 Furman Street are greatly exagerated. The units are selling, it is just a bad time now for real estate if you haven’t noticed. It will not always be so, especially for modern buildings with views right on the waterfront near Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights. Having said this, I am looking out over the old docks and I see no activity whatever.

  • marygoodman

    Apartments at 360 Furman were barely selling BEFORE the housing/financial crash really hit. I believe that the BBPDC still gets SOME money from the building through the ground lease, although as I recall the ground lease itself was at a bargain rate. I just hope that this will serve as a lesson that condos are a viable method of park funding, not to mention privacy concerns.

    Publius, regarding the ever-inflatable budget — we were supposed to have the budget figures this Fall. While Regina Meyer is definitely a big improvement over Wendy Leventer, the finances of the park are still nowhere to be found.

  • BklynLifer

    Why only call on Dan Squadron? Joan Millman was Marty Connor’s partner in turning the “park” into a “development,” contrary to the community-developed plan. Why let Joan off the hook? She created this mess. Why shouldn’t she be required to clean it up?

    And, while we’re at it, Yassky, Velasquez and Markowitz all signed off on this sell-out. Why don’t we demand that THEY seek an accounting of the public funds being spent on this project????

    Has anyone noticed that the current plan that Regina is so proud to be finally starting has $50+million dollars being spent on building “berms”? But no money for active recreation like a swimming pool, ball fields, year-round recreation center, or ice skating rink. All that money . . . and STILL no park?

    Joan? Marty M? Nydia? David? Where ARE you?

  • marygoodman

    Make that “condos are NOT a viable method of park funding…”

    Blogging on the sly at the office requires extra proofreading.

  • Teddy

    On a related note, I went down to 360 Furman St. to check out the new parking garage which has a monthly rate of $200. I don’t like giving my keys to the parking attendant so I won’t move my car there. Anyway, even during the daytime it feels desolate down there. I can’t imagine walking home at night under the BQE, climbing the steep hill up Joralemon.

    Maybe it’s because I grew up in the Heights that “living on the pier”, separated from the neighborhood by a noisy, polluted & busy Furman St/BQE would feel so foreign to me. A good view can only take you so far. I think most potential buyers are smart enough to know that they can live in a better location, maybe even at a better price with a good view. It’s not just the bad economy why they’re having trouble.