One year ago on Sunday, a 7-alarm fire ripped through the CitiStorage warehouse on the Williamsburg waterfront, spewing heavy smoke over Brooklyn. The fire also raised fears among locals that the now-charred site would be sold to a wealthy developer, solidifying the pipe-dream status of their long-awaited Bushwick Inlet Park.
Back in 2005, then-Mayor Bloomberg promised a 28-acre park encompassing the CitiStorage site as part of a major Williamsburg waterfront rezoning initiative. The fate of CitiStorage is still unclear, and yesterday neighbors and local politicians gathered at the site, urging Mayor de Blasio to make good on a Bloomberg-era promise.
"What is there to say other than, 'Where's our park?' The promise was made, and do it. I mean how many different ways can we say that?" said Senator Daniel Squadron on Sunday.
In 2011, Bloomberg admitted that he didn't have the money to buy the 11-acre CitiStorage site, which sits between North 10th and North 11th Streets. At the time, he estimated that the site would cost between $60 and $90 million. By last June, the NY Times reports, the city had spent $225 million buying up just nine acres of the proposed 28. For context, Bushwick Inlet has already exceeded the Highline in taxpayer costs.
According to Crain's, CitiStorage owner Norman Brodsky has valued the site at $500 million. The news outlet reported a possible $250 million deal in December—Hudson Yards developer Related Companies would purchase the site with partners Midtown Equities and East End Capital, and convert it into a residential development with some compromise parkland.
Mayor de Blasio reportedly shot down the rumored deal, to the relief of local advocates. "The administration would never accept a rezoning here that did not have the support of the councilman and community,” he said in a statement.
Brodsky has since stated that a deal with Related Companies would not go through without the Mayor's approval. "Most of the people who came to me thought that they could get it rezoned into some sort of housing, and obviously the mayor has taken a position that, without the community’s approval, he’s never going to do that," Brodsky told Bedford + Bowery.
However, he also told the outlet that he gets bids on the property "every day," and will have to act "sooner rather than latter."
As it now stands, members of the advocacy group Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park would like to see the city invoke eminent domain to acquire the property.
Over the summer, the Parks Department stated that it was "taking substantive steps" to complete Bushwick Inlet Park. However, asked at a City Council meeting if he was committed to buying CitiStorage, Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver replied, "Ah, I did not say that."
