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Councilmember Lincoln Restler opposed the Monitor Point project, which will build over 1,000 apartments on an MTA lot on the Greenpoint waterfront, until just before it came to a vote, citing an increase in the percentage of affordable units.
A controversial project to build several large towers on the Brooklyn waterfront in Greenpoint earned the support of the local Councilmember, Lincoln Restler, Thursday.
The developer, Gotham, committed to 662 affordable apartments in the 1,150-unit development after Restler drew a hard line on making the project majority affordable housing.
Half of the affordable units will be “deeply affordable,” according to Restler, with other units set-aside for seniors and supportive housing. Those will average to 50 percent of the area median income, affordable to a three-person household earning $76,350 a year.
Shortly after Restler testified that he’d reached a deal with the developers, the City Council’s zoning and land use committees advanced the project, clearing the path for its approval with a vote before the full City Council next week. The agreement also includes commitments from Gotham to maintain a waterfront park.
“Monitor Point will add desperately needed deeply affordable housing to our community, providing some of our most vulnerable neighbors with stable, dignified homes, while improving critical public infrastructure and expanding public green space,” said Restler in a statement.
The stretch of Williamsburg and Greenpoint has transformed dramatically in recent years, with large residential developments dotting the waterfront. Restler’s district has seen some of the most development of the 59 City Council districts, and the fifth most new affordable housing.
Some community members were critical of the proposal, which they said would threaten green space in a flood zone.
“No amount of additional affordability changes the reality of where this project will be built,” said Save the Inlet, a group fighting the project, in a statement.
But proponents said the plan, which redevelops an existing lot owned by the MTA, would create union jobs and deliver needed new homes during a housing shortage.
Restler had previously declined to support the project when it was 25 percent and then 40 percent affordable.
“I thought this project was a total nonstarter… it’s come a really long way,” Restler testified at Thursday’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises hearing. “I’ve been clear over these five years that any development of this publicly owned land must be in the public interest.”
Restler was also a vocal critic of housing-related ballot measures passed by voters last year, saying they would limit the local councilmember’s ability to negotiate with developers. One of the measures created an avenue for the mayor, borough presidents, and Council speaker to overrule the City Council if it rejects certain affordable housing proposals.
Some pro-housing voices said the negotiations on Monitor Point showed the opposite: that councilmembers still have significant leverage in land use deals.
“The result is consistent with what you see from a process where there is still an outsized role for the local member, just not an absolute power for them to obstruct projects,” said Howard Slatkin, president of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council.
Restler said that the backing of Speaker Julie Menin and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso helped him maintain negotiating leverage in this case.
“I think that’s because, frankly, my position was reasonable, and it wasn’t to kill the project, it was to say ‘We’re willing to get to yes, these are the terms,’ and the borough president and the speaker agreed with my terms,” said Restler.
Still, developers don’t always hold up to their end of the bargain. Earlier this month, City Limits reported on proposals for two new buildings along Atlantic Avenue, where the developers earned the Council’s approval in 2022 after pledging to make at least 35 percent of the apartments affordable.
When the buildings opened to renters this year, just a quarter of the apartments were income-restricted, after the developers cited rising building costs.
Here’s what else happened this week—
ICYMI, from City Limits:
- New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board voted to freeze the rent for the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, helping Mayor Zohran Mamdani deliver on one of his key campaign promises. The board took the unprecedented step of freezing rents on both one- and two-year lease renewals, prompting celebration from tenants.
- The revised Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, which now has a majority of sponsors in the City Council, aims to strengthen community land trusts and create more opportunities to place land under community control. But how does a land trust work, exactly? City Limits intern Casey Wetherbee explains.
- The city will launch a new call center for public housing tenants who need help with “critical repairs” in their homes, modeled after the existing Mold and Leaks Ombudsperson Call Center, which residents say has added an extra layer of accountability and coordination to NYCHA’s slow, multi-part repair process.
ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:
- Frank Carone, a longtime adviser to former Mayor Eric Adams, was indicted on federal bribery and money laundering charges, accused of using his position as chief of staff to secure a multi-million dollar city homeless shelter contract for a developer who paid him off, the New York Times reports.
- Mayor Mamdani is looking for companies to run his city-backed insurance program for rent-stabilized buildings, according to The City Reporter. The mayor first unveiled plans to launch a cheaper public option earlier this year, an effort to help property owners who are struggling amid rising costs.
- Providers are still filing evictions against formerly homeless New Yorkers in supportive housing, Gothamist reports—even after the Mamdani administration asked organizations only to do so in extreme circumstances.
- President Donald Trump refused to sign a much-anticipated bill that would make it easier to build new housing across the country, according to PBS.
- A growing number of serious housing code violations are going unaddressed for years, New York Focus reports.
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