Development At Long Island College Hospital Site Will Not Include Affordable Housing
It now seems unlikely that any new development planned for the site occupied by Long Island College Hospital will include affordable housing.
As first reported by Politico, landowner Fortis Property Group has decided not to seek a rezoning for the Long Island College Hospital property, the block bounded by Atlantic and Pacific avenues and Hicks and Henry streets. A City-approved rezoning would have required that some of the apartments constructed there be “affordable.”
“An as-of-right redevelopment is the most profitable,” Fortis Property Group’s president, Joel Kestenbaum, reportedly stated. Mayor de Blasio had hoped for a mixed-use project at the Cobble Hill location, with an affordable housing component, Politico says.
The scale and neighborhood impact of what Fortis may be planning greatly concerns local Councilman Brad Lander. Lander told Politico that he would consider trying to stop Fortis using legal means if the developer’s plans are not an improvement over their earlier proposals.
Fortis had previously suggested two buildings for the site, one 14-stories and the other 35-stories (which Lander called “hideous”), along with a possible school, retail and parkland, Politico notes.
As-of-right development of the site could entail over a half million square feet of residential space, 262,555 square feet of community facility space, and 23,375 square feet of public space, NY Yimby reports.
“It is of course their [Fortis’] option to build as-of-right,” Lander told Politico. “However to move forward without having talked to anyone in the community in months, it continues a pattern of disrespect that made it difficult to trust them in negotiations from the beginning.”
Other development projects for the immediate area are already underway, Yimby says. Eight four-story townhouses will be built at 88-96 Amity Street, and an eight-story building at 350 Henry Street will be converted into 17 residential units.
After 156 years of service to Brooklyn, Long Island College Hospital closed its doors in 2014. The LICH site will still have a connection to healthcare. NYU Langone will build a five-story Ambulatory Care Clinic at 70 Atlantic Avenue, Yimby reports.