How many people will
be able to afford the soaring Frank Gehry-designed apartment buildings
proposed for Prospect Heights as part f developer Bruce Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards plan?
Maybe more than people think, according to the plan’s biggest political
supporter, Borough President Marty Markowitz.
At a Borough Hall luncheon with reporters Wednesday, Markowitz said Ratner
has pledged to him that half of the 4,500 planned units would be for “middle
to moderate” income tenants.
While “moderate income” for a family in New York City is defined
as $50,240 to $62,800 a year, a spokesman for Markowitz later said the
borough president had not been using the technical definition.
“What Marty defines as affordable is what firefighters, teachers,
nurses, police officers, construction workers, reporters — a place
they can afford,” Markowitz spokeswoman Sharon Toomer said after
the announcement.
Despite Markowitz’s announcement, Ratner has remained mum on just
how much of the residential component would be affordable, market rate
or luxury housing.
Asked about Markowitz’s remarks, Ratner spokesman Joe Deplasco declined
to comment on specific percentages but said the developer was “completely
committed to maximizing the number of affordable- and moderate-income
units.”
The $2.5 billion Atlantic Yards development is proposed for a 24-acre
site stretching from the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues
over to Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights.
The plan also includes a 19,000-seat professional basketball arena —
to accommodate Ratner’s planned move of his New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn
— flanked by soaring office towers and 13 residential towers, some
reaching 450 feet.
Ratner purchased the Nets last month for $300 million.
“We are concerned about creating as much affordability as possible
for a whole range of incomes including low and very low,” said Steve
Aronson, executive director of the Pratt Area Community Council, a housing
and economic development organization.
As part of the plan, roughly 70 homes would need to be condemned, displacing
hundreds residents.
Markowitz began his career in public service as a tenants rights activist.
“I don’t want to create housing just for people out of Brooklyn
to move to Brooklyn,” Markowtiz said this week.
