Despite uncertainty in the days after Mayor Bloomberg’s stunning announcement on Thursday that the city should take control of the Brooklyn Bridge Park development from the state, the development’s president said on Monday night that the earliest park sections are still scheduled to open by the end of this year.
Yet the official, Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation President Regina Myer, would not discuss the shakeup that is now being negotiated by Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Paterson over control of the condo and open space development.
“I’m not going to respond to anything that would go to the mayor or governor’s office,” Myer told members of Community Board 2’s Parks and Recreation Committee, who were understandably curious about the latest twist in the long-stalled, far-over-budget project along the Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO waterfront.
Instead, Myer and her team presented a timeline for Pier 6, near the foot of Atlantic Avenue, that includes sand volleyball courts, a dog run, and a playground opening before the page turns on 2009.
A restaurant and a water taxi berth on the dock would come later.
At previous meetings, the park builders also said Pier 1, near the end of Old Fulton Street, would open later this year, too. Work is underway on some of the open space there— the first construction of a permanent part of the park in its tortured, decades-long history.
The entire park will cost at least $350 million, but only $231 million has been allocated, causing delays on several pieces until more taxpayer money is procured. And virtually all of the revenue-generating elements of the development — including a hotel and 800 units of luxury housing — are off the table.
Such shortfalls prompted the mayor to reveal that he and Gov. Paterson are apparently working out a swap that would give the state control of the Javits Center in exchange for city control of Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island.
“The city [would] take over management and fiscal re- financial responsibility for Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island and use monies that we’ve already put aside … for Javits,” the mayor said last week.
“We would use that money to continue to develop these two things. … The city has more of an interest and I think the state government has their own problems. It’s a good deal for the state. If not, they can take them over or close them down.”
