Letting developers build high-rise condos and hotels generates jobs, tax revenues and billions in indirect economic benefits for New York City, according to a report published by the Real Estate Board of New York.
“The hope is that the public will understand that development is not a negative,” REBNY President Steven Pinola told the Wall Street Journal of the motivation for quantifying such benefits. “Good, responsible development results in not just wonderful architecture and jobs but an income stream for the city.”
The report is no doubt also aimed at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ran for office as a “pro-development progressive” and has set a target of building or preserving 200,000 units of affordable housing in the next 10 years.
In his first big real estate battle since taking office, de Blasio “stared down Brooklyn developer Jed Walentas, and Walentas blinked,” Capital New York’s Dana Rubinstein reports. Walentas has agreed that a 3 million-square-foot mixed-use development in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood will include 700 affordable housing units instead of 660. S0urce: therealdeal.com.
