Rheingold Plan Set To Start
The project to build 1,000 apartments on the former Rheingold Brewery site is inching closer to becoming a reality, a project manager told Community Board 4 at its monthly meeting last Wednesday, May 21, at Hope Gardens Senior Center in Bushwick.
The Reed Property Group will develop the property, with work expected to be completed in four phases, the first beginning in the first quarter of 2015, according to Project Manager Aaron Klein.
“Right now we’re only in the schematic design phase,” he told Board 4 lastWednesday.
Phase 1 work will be focused around Bushwick Avenue and Montieth Street. “We hope to break ground in the first quarter of 2015,” he said.
Phase 2, along Flushing Avenue and Montieth Street will also break ground in the first quarter of 2015, Klein said. Phases three and four around Mill and Melrose streets, and Evergreen Avenue will only begin when phases one and two are finished.
When complete the project will build “almost one thousand units of residential housing,” Kevin Worthington, a representative of City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, said .
The project was approved under Reynoso’s predecessor, Diana Reyna for whom Worthington previously worked.
Worthington began the public hearing section of the meeting with the presentation on Reed Properties’ plans to build 70 percent market rate, 30 percent affordable and senior housing on the dormant site in Bushwick.
The former brewery is located on land in northwest Bushwick in the vicinity of Forrest and Bremen streets.
The developer, Reed properties will oversee building on the site, but Klein said the company has agreed to keep the community informed at each stage. Reed donated six lots of land to local non-profits Churches United For Fair Housing and Los Sures “with the stipulation that low income housing is developed at the site.” Los Sures Director of Communications Thomas Servello said.
Reed Properties is also working with Los Sures to include social services for tenants in the new housing.
Reed will use most of the land to build towers with over 1,000 apartments, and Los Sures and Churches United For Fair Housing will oversee the social services components.
Reed began working with Los Sures and Churches United for Fair Housing based on the community desire that local not for profits become involved in the affordable housing developments in the bushwick area, Servello said.
Rob Solano, the executive director of Churches United For Affordable Housing addressed the meeting and said the general goal of his organization, both globally and specifically related to this project is advocating for “an affordable housing component (in Bushwick).”
Concerning the Rheingold project, the goal remains the same. “Our number one focus is affordable housing,” he said. “If you were here for the bad times and stayed when things got better, there should be a place for you (in Bushwick), he added.
When the project was first proposed, an 80/20 market-rate, affordable ratio was planned, but members of Community Board 4 and activists from the Northwest Bushwick Community Group wanted 30 percent reserved affordable.
Solano explained how many one and two-bedroom apartments are planned, and told the meeting that as part of NYC Community Preference Requirements for housing, “50 percent of (the) affordable units have to go to residents of Community Board 4.”
Solano said 10 percent, or 88 units are reserved for seniors, and added, “(this is) the real cake on the entire project.”
The senior housing component will also include a community space on the ground level, and social services on-site to assist tenants.
Brandy Moreno of Los Sures addressed the meeting as well. She believes her organization, which will oversee pre-development and construction activities at the site is a good fit for the project
“We really have a strong legacy of building housing in Bushwick,” she said. “It’s a two year process and right now we’re just working on beginning.”
Los Sures, founded in 1972 on the south side of Williamsburg, “has developed 5000 units of affordable housing,” in north Brooklyn, Servello said. In addition, the organization is “among the leading groups fighting against displacement of local residents in the face of aggressive gentrification practices by private landlords, corporations and government,” he added.
The background of the development on the site has included much community input, including a Comprehensive Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP), several town hall meetings, a community advisory committee that included Board 4 members and northwestern Bushwick activists, outreach efforts and a full vote by Board 4 last July.
Klein told Board 4 last Wednesday night that the work will be completed in four phases, and that he is currently “focused on fasttracking phases one and two along land bordered by Bushwick Avenue and Stanwix and Montieth streets.”
Solano and Churches United For Fair Housing will help prepare prospective tenants seeking one of the affordable units for interviews, help them fill out applications so that they can get an apartment in the development. “The worst feeling is when you get an interview and don’t get it,” Solano said.
Churches united believes very strongly in working to help seniors and moderate income residents remain in Bushwick, though rents are rising steadily and many can no longer afford to stay.
“We came to you months ago and said we are serious about senior housing. From our minds, we are not local non-profits, we are Bushwick, Solano said. “Emotionally this is our land.”
Leah Archibald the executive director of the East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation, spoke about preserving manufacturing jobs.
Residential rezoning and largescale housing development, “it’s a use that drives out manufacturing jobs,” she said.
Though the brewery has long since been closed, the site will include retail space on the ground level, reserved for local businesses that do not exceed 20,000 square feet, unless for a supermarket or freshfoods store.
Following several speakers, local activist Bridget Blood read aloud a statement she wrote regarding the site specifically, and Bushwick development generally.
“As a community, we should ask ourselves what would it mean for us to benefit from large scale luxury development? And what does it mean to lose industrial space?” she said. “Thirty percent affordable units still means 70 percent luxury units and the market forces that go with them. Not to mention that the affordable units are way out of reach for many of us.”
Community Board 4 Chairperson Julie Dent believes “it’s very important for us to know what is going on in the community and that everyone understands the process along the way.” She wants the people of Bushwick to be involved and informed.
“If there is something you don’t understand, you have the right to ask questions,” she added.
In her statement, Blood was critical of the ULURP process, calling it “alienating for all. Even the most community minded of residents.” She praised Board 4 for holding the developer accountable to the community, but feels the process should be altered to include more community input.
“Creating market rate and above market rate development in low income neighborhoods brings with it many negative impacts for longstanding residents,” she said. “This type of rezoning and luxury development must hold developers accountable to their true impact. Currently this ULURP process and this development fail us.”
Brooklyn Community Board 4 generally meets on the third Wednesday each month at 6 p.m. at the Hope Gardens Senior Center, located at 195 Linden St. in Bushwick. For more information, call 1-718-628-8400.
