| נשלח ב-17/1/2008 01:31 |
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וועלעכע קעשענע וויל וויטא לאפעז אנפילן?
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/13714/NY+Observer:+Pfizer+Offering+Williamsburg+Plant+Site+for+Affordable+Housing+-+So,+Why's+a+State+Assemblyman+Trying+to+Seize+It?+.html
NY Observer: Pfizer Offering Williamsburg Plant Site for Affordable Housing - So, Why's a State Assemblyman Trying to Seize It?
January 16, 2008 *--
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[The NY Observer reports:] Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is opting to leave the Brooklyn community that gave it its start 159 years ago with something of a mixed-income goodbye kiss, as its seeks to turn its giant 15-acre southeast Williamsburg site into a new development marked by affordable housing.
The firm is putting out a request for proposals for developers to create a mixed-use, mixed-income complex on the site of its old manufacturing plant, which is slated to close by the end of the year in the name of cost-cutting and consolidation. In a statement, the company said, in gathering input from the community, affordable housing topped the list of desires.
Pfizer has retained the investment sales team at Cushman & Wakefield to handle the R.F.P. for the site, near the border of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Bedford Stuyvesant.
Any developer would likely have to change the zoning on the properties, most of which currently restricts uses to manufacturing. The current density allows for about two million square feet of development, according to figures from the real estate tracking firm PropertyShark.
All of Pfizer's plans, however, could be for naught if State Assemblyman Vito Lopez is successful in a bid to claim the site with eminent domain and develop it for affordable housing. First reported in Crain's New York Business, Mr. Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat, has been drafting a bill that would have the state's housing agency acquire the site, then issue its own request for proposals so as to create about 1,700 housing units.
Mr. Lopez, the chairman of the Assembly's housing committee, has pushed for large levels of affordable housing, often irking city officials and other legislators who consider his demands unreasonable and unrealistic. His efforts, however, received a shout-out from Governor Spitzer in his State of the State address last week, in which he praised Mr. Lopez for his commitment to affordable housing.
Pfizer, in a candid statement, said 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.''
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| נשלח ב-17/1/2008 20:01 |
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וויטא לאפעז איז א מענטש וואס וויל אלעס אונטער זיין קאנטראל
און דאס איז לעבען זיין געגענט
ער מיט נידערמאן זענען היינט איינס און זיי האבן געמאכט א חלוקה איבער די לאט
און פייזער וויל נישט זיי עס געבן חצי בחנם זענען זיי ארויס צו די מידיא כדי דעוועלאפערס זאלן אוועק שטיין פון די לאט
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| נשלח ב-17/1/2008 23:13 |
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מורי ורבותי
דעי חברה זענען שוין ווייטער הונגעריג צו מאכן א דאלער אויפן ציבור
פון די ווילאס - פאז - שעיפאר און יעצט פייזער
ער בילט ווי א האן קעגן דעם גוי פאר איין סיבה יענער איז נישט זיין משוגענער
פייזער איז א פובליק קאמפאני און דארפן מאכן געלט פאר זייערע שעיר האלדערס און נישט פאר נידערמאן מיט יוסי שפיטצער מיט ווער נאך
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| נשלח ב-17/1/2008 23:13 |
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Pfizer Offering Williamsburg Plant Site for Affordable Housing—So, Why's a State Assemblyman Trying to Seize It?
*--meta*
Property Shark
Pfizer plant.
*--paging_filter*
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is opting
to leave the Brooklyn community that gave it its start 159 years ago
with something of a mixed-income goodbye kiss, as its seeks to turn its
giant 15-acre southeast Williamsburg site into a new development marked
by affordable housing.
The firm is putting out a request for proposals
for developers to create a mixed-use, mixed-income complex on the site
of its old manufacturing plant, which is slated to close by the end of
the year in the name of cost-cutting and consolidation. In a statement,
the company said, in gathering input from the community, affordable
housing topped the list of desires.
''The message we heard loudly and clearly, from a
wide range of diverse voices, was that affordable housing and jobs are
pressing needs in the neighborhood,'' the statement said. ''We fully
agree.''
Pfizer has retained the investment sales team at Cushman & Wakefield to handle the R.F.P. for the site, near the border of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Bedford Stuyvesant.
Any developer would likely have to change the zoning on
the properties, most of which currently restricts uses to
manufacturing. The current density allows for about two million square
feet of development, according to figures from the real estate tracking
firm PropertyShark.
All of Pfizer's plans, however, could be for
naught if State Assemblyman Vito Lopez is successful in a bid to claim
the site with eminent domain and develop it for affordable housing.
First reported in Crain's New York Business, Mr. Lopez, a
Brooklyn Democrat, has been drafting a bill that would have the state's
housing agency acquire the site, then issue its own request for
proposals so as to create about 1,700 housing units.
Mr. Lopez, the chairman of the Assembly's housing
committee, has pushed for large levels of affordable housing, often
irking city officials and other legislators who consider his demands
unreasonable and unrealistic. His efforts, however, received a
shout-out from Governor Spitzer in his State of the State address last
week, in which he praised Mr. Lopez for his commitment to affordable
housing.
Pfizer, in a candid statement, said 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.''
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| נשלח ב-25/1/2008 04:48 |
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Dem boss wants to take Pfizer site
By Adam F. Hutton
The Brooklyn Paper
Drug giant Pfizer has slammed a proposal by two state assemblymen to seize the company's abandoned Williamsburg plant. The
former factory site, where Pfizer was founded in 1849, would be
snatched away from the multi-billion-dollar corporation and redeveloped
by the state as ''affordable housing'' if Assemblymen Vito Lopez
(D–Williamsburg) and Joseph Lentol (D–Greenpoint) get their way. Lopez
is the boss of the Brooklyn Democratic Party organization. The
two legislators say they will introduce a bill that would have the
state use its power of eminent domain to grab the 660,000-square-foot
plant that Pfizer closed a year ago, as well as a massive parking lot
behind the plant and several other Pfizer buildings on 15 acres along
Flushing Avenue between Marcy and Tompkins avenues. Following the
seizure, the state agency would seek developers to build between 1,500
and 1,700 units of affordable housing, a Lopez spokesman said. The
Pfizer compound today bears little resemblance to the small laboratory
and manufacturing facility where the drug giant began as a small-time
family operation. From that single building, the company rose to number
39 on the Fortune 500 — a pharmaceutical juggernaut second in the
industry only to Johnson & Johnson. Lopez says Pfizer broke
its promise to donate its property to be redeveloped as affordable
housing when it shuttered the plant and laid-off 600 workers in
January, 2007. Pfizer says it made no such promise, but added
that it is planning to redevelop the site to bring low- and
moderate-income housing to a neighborhood whose population is booming.
That plan is still on track, Pfizer says, and Lopez's move to take away
its property is premature. ''Pfizer recently shared development
scenarios for our Brooklyn properties with elected officials and
stakeholders,'' a Pfizer spokesman said. ''We made it clear that our
plans would be based on principles ranging from the inclusion of
affordable housing and job creation to minority contracting
opportunities. ''Within the context of these principles, we find
it puzzling that a legislator would propose a government seizure of
private property to redevelop the properties with the same uses we are
considering.'' Lopez fired back last week, saying that what Pfizer
calls ''affordable housing'' could be considered luxury apartments by
community standards. ''Affordable housing is not for people who are making $150,000 a
year,'' Lopez told The Brooklyn Paper. ''For me, affordable housing in
Williamsburg means meeting the needs of the people who are earning
between $30,000 and $50,000 a year and there is no guarantee from
Pfizer that they will meet that need.'' Though the rhetoric coming
from both sides sounds bitter, Brad Lander of the Pratt Center for
Community Development says it doesn't have to be public-private
slugfest. ''Pfizer could be a partner in a public process, and I
would strongly prefer a public process over a private one.'' said
Lander. ''Pfizer could agree to sell the property to the city, state or
a non-profit, yet retain some rights about what happens on its land. ''Pfizer
says it will include affordable housing, but it is also looking to
maximize its sale price, which will come at the expense of affordable
housing,'' Lander added. ''And that's why I have a problem with the
redevelopment being a strictly private process.'' *--ARTICLE TEXT END*
©2008 The Brooklyn Paper
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