In January, the NYC Department of Finance (DOF) released actual market valuations and assessments for the recently-completed properties in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The new data supports the BHA’s legal claim that the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation (BBPC) misled its Board, which led to the Board approving the construction of two residential towers on Pier 6.
Whereas the BBPC estimated the total market value of the existing developments at about $289 million in FY2018, the DOF valued them 30% higher at about $376 million. The higher valuations, in turn, would produce annual payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOTS) that would be more than $300 million higher than the BBPC’s financial model, which was the basis for the Board’s approval of the Pier 6 towers.
The construction of the new towers would contravene the Park Corporation’s legal obligation under the General Project Plan to limit future real estate development to only that necessary to fund the maintenance and operation of the park.
The BHA wrote on February 10th to Justice Lucy Billings, the NYC Supreme Court judge who will hear the BHA’s lawsuit to halt the development of the two towers, to alert her to the new DOF data and to highlight its support of the BHA’s legal claims in the petition it brought against the Respondents in July 2016.
The BBPC responded to the court on February 28th, to which the BHA replied on March 7th challenging the issues raised by the Park Corporation. The oral arguments by the BHA and the Respondents, which were to have taken place on March 22nd, has been postponed and a new hearing date in April is pending.