Although the 15-acre Williamsburg property that Pfizer is letting go of as it says goodbye to Brooklyn seems destined to one day be turned into affordable housing, an article in the Observer notes that there’s a battle brewing about who gets to control the redevelopment. Pfizer has put out an RFP seeking private developers to build a mixed-use, mixed-income complex on the site, but Assemblyman Vito Lopez wants the state to seize the site via eminent domain and be in charge of issuing an RFP that would call for around 1,700 affordable housing units. Pfizer said in a statement that the company finds it extremely puzzling that a legislator would propose a government seizure of private property through eminent domain to ostensibly re-develop the properties with the same types of uses we are already considering. Puzzling indeed. The insidious creep of E.D.
Pfizer Offering Williamsburg Plant Site for Affordable Housing [NY Observer]
Will Pfizer Need Anti-Depressants Over Brooklyn Property? [Curbed]