Developer chosen for brooklyn village facelift

Wfae

Developer chosen for brooklyn village facelift"


Play all audios:

Loading...

County Commissioners chose BK Partners to redevelop Brooklyn Village, a one-time economically diverse, African-American community that was razed as part of the 1960s urban renewal movement.


After Wednesday’s vote, many questions lingered for some commissioners about the $683 million project. It calls for more than 1,200 residential units, with 10 percent set aside as affordable


housing, 280 hotel rooms, 930,000 square feet of retail and office space, parking and a 1.9-acre park. BK Partners will pay the county $50 million for roughly 17 acres, which includes


Marshall Park and Walton Plaza. That is about $20 million more than the next closet offer, which is one reason Commissioner Pat Cotham voted against the developer. She thinks the offer is


too good to be true. “I just have a feeling that down the road they’ll say it didn’t work out the way we thought, the market changed and we weren’t able to get the tenants,” Cotham said. The


5-acre Marshall Park will be gone with the development. Some commissioners wanted a 3-acre park, but others feared that would cause BK to reduce its land offer. Commissioner Ella


Scarborough is worried that BK’s plans won’t reflect Brooklyn’s past and that African-Americans won’t be part of its rebirth. “All of a sudden, people want to come back and make it look like


what they want and move all the people out that’s been in the neighborhood,” Scarborough said. “All of a sudden people realize those neighborhoods are in downtown and we need to be there


and they don’t need to be there, whoever they is in your mind.” The vote was 5-3 in favor of BK PPartners. Chairman Trevor Fuller says there will be time to address concerns. “There’s going


to be a whole period of time for the public to engage with us to get input from all over the community about what the final plan should be,” Fuller said. BK Partners is led by one of the


country’s largest minority developers, New York-based Peebles Corporation. Fuller says he’s excited about moving forward with BK Partners because of its plan to include minority contractors.


“There’s far too little minority participation in developments that go up in this town. We have a developer who’s committed 35 percent of the participation in this contract to be with


minority businesses,” Fuller said. The first phase of the project will focus mainly on housing. BK Partners’ original proposal called for construction to start in 2021, but that could


change.


Trending News

404 error

Do French speed cameras adjust to lower limits in poor conditions? Heavy rain, fog, hail, or snow demand lower speed lim...

Goodbye to aarp: bill novelli's last column - aarp bulletin

After nine years at AARP, eight as CEO, I am saying goodbye. Just as Horace Deets handed the baton to me in 2001, I am n...

Rethinking china’s maritime militia policy

Given its transboundary nature, marine fishing inevitably carries an important political and diplomatic function, partic...

Seven ex-prudential employees charged

Federal and Massachusetts regulators Tuesday filed charges against seven former Prudential Securities employees, saying ...

Higher food costs stalk britons as new year brings brexit

HIGHER FOOD COSTS STALK BRITONS AS NEW YEAR BRINGS BREXIT ByBloomberg | Posted by Ayshee Bhaduri Jan 04, 2021 12:58 PM I...

Latests News

Developer chosen for brooklyn village facelift

County Commissioners chose BK Partners to redevelop Brooklyn Village, a one-time economically diverse, African-American ...

Mucosal immunology - volume 6 issue 3, may 2013

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best expe...

Action plan to curb pollution rolls out on oct 15

The much talked about Odd-Even road rationing system is all set to return to the Capital this winter, when the graded re...

What price a cure for the flu?

Over the past decade, the pharmaceutical industry has worked wonders with its image. In the aftermath of the Opren scand...

Black box data from doomed ethiopian airlines jet show 'clear similarities' between both boeing 737 max crashes

The nose of a Boeing Co. 737 MAX 9 jetliner sits during production at the company's manufacturing facility in Rento...

Top