The campaign to publicly sell the massive project that developers want to build the New Domino on the site of the old Domino Sugar Plant in Williamsburg includes a poll sponsored by the developer that finds that people support the project and say that big buildings are okay in return for affordable housing. The interesting news and analysis are passed on by Norman Oder in his Atlantic Yards Report. He writes, in part:
It’s doubtful that any other megadeveloper has outdone Forest City Ratner in the effort to sway public opinion on a controversial project. But the developers behind the proposed New Domino project in Williamsburg, CPC Resources (CPCR) and its silent partner, Isaac Katan, are pushing the envelope in one aspect of the hard sell.
They sponsored their own poll, then ran an advertisement (click to enlarge) based on the poll, offering the unsurprising conclusion that residents in the area around the proposed New Domino site would accept increased density for increased affordable housing.
Those polled also said, not unreasonably, that the lack of affordable housing is a bigger problem than overdevelopment. And, perhaps predictably, longer-term residents were less exercised by the thought of development.
The marketing effort for the project–which does have opposition within the community, particularly to the massive size of the buildings–should be interesting to watch as it unfold.
2 responses so far ↓
1 nesNYC // Nov 15, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Hummm.. Something’s afoot here. Guess they know they can’t make money on the luxury market so will try and leech some tax money for “lower” income folks. I can just hear the tax dollars getting sucked away into the coffers of the developers. Bet you they’ll have “some” luxury units there as well.
However, I still don’t see it happening. The city recently issued a hiring freeze and the credit market is getting ready to tank big time.
2 Anonymous // Nov 18, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Please. CPC sponsored the poll, hence the results of that poll will be whatever they want them to be.
“Affordable housing” is the most overused, dubious term in the practice of real estate developers trying to grab taxpayer dollars. They’ll stick a handful of tiny apartments in their huge ugly tower, sell them for the “affordable” price of less than a million dollars, then ask the city to pay half the construction costs in the form of tax breaks.