{"id":252559,"date":"2026-06-02T19:27:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/252559\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T19:27:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:27:55","slug":"restler-developers-clash-over-monitor-point-proposal-at-city-council-hearing-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/252559\/","title":{"rendered":"Restler, developers clash over Monitor point proposal at City Council hearing \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fight over proposed high-rise development Monitor Point<\/a> ramped up last week as the project finally came before the City Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After scoring a long-term lease of an MTA-owned plot of land at 40 Quay St. in 2021, developer Gotham Organization is seeking a rezoning to make way for three high-rises with a combined 1,150 units.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monitor Point would be 40% affordable, developers say, and would include a new home for the Greenpoint Monitor Museum<\/a> and waterfront public space. The deal also includes the relocation of the MTA wash site currently at the lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But some Greenpointers \u2014 including Council Member Lincoln Restler, whose vote will be critical to the rezoning \u2014 say the development doesn\u2019t do enough for the community to justify a rezoning of publicly-owned land.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"monitorRestler joined locals rallying against Monitor Point on May 27. Photo by Kirstyn Brendlen<\/p>\n

A pair of opposing rallies sprang up outside City Hall ahead of the May 27 hearing.<\/p>\n

Outside the Council\u2019s office building at 250 Broadway, about two dozen opponents with hand-painted signs called the project \u201creckless\u201d and slammed developers for seeking to build in an ecologically-sensitive flood zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across the street, a larger group \u2014 made up primarily of members of 32BJSEIU, Laborers Local 79, and housing group United Neighbors Organization \u2014 said Monitor Point would create \u201cdozens\u201d of good-paying permanent jobs and more affordable housing for an infamously-expensive neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"proUnion members and north Brooklyn locals rallied in favor of the project ahead of the City Council hearing. Photo by Kirstyn Brendlen
\nDevelopers, Restler face off over affordability and community benefit<\/p>\n

At Wednesday\u2019s roughly four-hour hearing, Bryan Kelly, president of development at Gotham, described Monitor Point as the \u201cdefinition of a public-private partnership,\u201d noting that the MTA and the Monitor Museum are co-applicants on the application.<\/p>\n

Selling the development rights to Gotham would give the museum enough money to build a roughly 18,0000 square-foot facility, said Monitor Museum rep Eugene Travers, plus an endowment for its operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGotham is responsible for the maintenance and insurance of the waterfront open space in perpetuity, so it won\u2019t be a financial drag on the museum,\u201d Travers said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re really excited about this. We think it\u2019s going to be a local and regional destination and really the crown jewel of the Brooklyn waterfront.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"monitorA rendering of the proposed Monitor Point towers, just north of Bushwick Inlet Park. Image courtesy of Gotham Organization\/City Planning Commission<\/p>\n

The developer would lease the MTA-owned property for 99 years, part of a plan developed to generate revenue<\/a> for the transit authority. Gotham would pay to relocate both the MTA wash site at 40 Quay St. and a separate MTA facility currently located at the future Box Street Park.<\/p>\n

Kelly called the MTA facility a \u201cwall to the waterfront,\u201d and that the small parcel of land owned by the museum is prone to coastal erosion. Monitor Point, he said, would generate funds for the MTA, protect the coastline and bring 460 permanently-affordable homes to the neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The smaller East Building would be all-affordable, and subsidized by the city\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, with 200 units priced between 40-100% Area Median Income, or between $1,215-$3,037 per month for a one-bedroom.<\/p>\n

Additional affordable units in the West Building would be priced between 40-80% AMI.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis site today that the MTA owns is zoned only for market-rate condos,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cThe zoning change does add a tremendous amount of density in light of a housing crisis, but 50% of the new floor area will go to deep affordability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lot is currently zoned<\/a> R6, a \u201cmedium-density\u201d district that allows \u201call forms of residences\u201d with caps on building height. Developers can build taller if they include qualifying affordable housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"bushwickBushwick Inlet Park, with the existing low-slung MTA facility at right .Photo by Kirstyn Brendlen<\/p>\n

Kelly said market rate units would start at around $4,000 per month for studios, with one-bedrooms between $5,000,-$6,000, two-bedrooms up to $7,800, and three bedrooms costing up to $9,500. Those units help to subsidize the affordable units that generate less revenue, he added later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Community Board 1<\/a> and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso<\/a> voted to approve the project with conditions, Restler noted, including more affordable housing. He asked if Gotham is \u201cactively evaluating ways to add more affordable housing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kelly said the company is \u201ctrying to identify ways\u201d to lower costs and increase the number of affordable units before the final City Council vote in late June.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil Member, you\u2019ve got our commitment to spend the next three to four weeks to try and tick that number upward, but to be clear, from our perspective, developers are executing upon a business plan,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also have constraints, banks, ultimately, endowment investors, institutional pension funds that invest the equity and tax credits.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Restler, who said he has been opposed to the plan since it was first proposed by the MTA five years ago, also quizzed MTA vice president Sean Fitzpatrick on the benefits the project will bring to the MTA.<\/p>\n

Leasing the property to Gotham would bring in an estimated $39 million over the course of the 99-year lease, Restler said, which \u201cis the equivalent to the MTA\u2019s operating expenses for about one half-hour of one day.\u201d (The MTA\u2019s adopted budget for 2025 was $19.88 billion<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"gothamGotham executive Bryan Kelly (right) and architect Dan Kaplan. Photo courtesy of John McCarten\/NYC Council Media Unit<\/p>\n

But Gotham is also paying to relocate the existing wash facility at 40 Quay St. and the Emergency Response Unit currently located at Box Street, which blocks the full development of Box Street Park.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick said moving the wash facility would cost $60 million, though Restler noted that the agency had submitted a much smaller cost estimate in documents submitted to the MTA. Fitzpatrick said that estimate likely did not include the cost of relocating the ERU.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MTA committed in 2005 in writing to relocate that facility,\u201d Restler said. \u201cWe are breaking ground this summer to finally build Box Street Park, we are only breaking ground on 85% of the park because the MTA has refused to relocate the ERU facility from our promised park space \u2026 the MTA has been a bad partner for my neighborhood and my community in failing to follow through on the promises you made to us in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning.\u201d<\/p>\n

In finding a developer willing to lease and develop the land and relocate the facilities, the MTA felt it had found a way to fulfill those promises, Fitzpatrick said. He said the agency structured its agreement with Gotham to include the partnership with HPD and the construction of an all-affordable building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The MTA facility is not the only long-overdue promise Restler is seeking to fulfill. As part of the 2005 Williamsburg-Greenpoint rezoning, the city promised to construct the 28-acre Bushwick Inlet Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 20 years and millions of dollars later, the two largest parcels of the park are barren and untouched. Its most recently-finished section, which sits just south of the proposed Monitor Point site, opened to the public in April<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"bushwickThe Bayside parcel of Bushwick Inlet Park, which is untouched and undeveloped. Photo by Kirstyn Brendlen<\/p>\n

Restler said he will not vote to approve Monitor Point without \u201can ironclad commitment with crisp timeline and full funding for the completion of the long-promised Bushwick Inlet Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developers say Monitor Point would include more than 51,000 square feet of public waterfront open space that would connect to the park and would include new shoreline resiliency measures, stormwater management, walking paths and seating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gotham has committed to providing $300,000 in funding for Bushwick Inlet Park every year for the entire term of the lease, Kelly said, starting when the buildings are finished. The funding would be \u201cmemorialized, enforced\u201d and included in a regulatory agreement called a restrictive declaration.<\/p>\n

Locals speak out<\/p>\n

Nearly 100 people signed up to testify about the development at the May 27 hearing, both for and against.\n<\/p>\n

Most in favor of the project cited the critical need for affordable housing in the neighborhood.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Rolando Guzman, deputy director of community preservation at St. Nicks Alliance, said many of the org\u2019s clients are being priced out of North Brooklyn as rents in Greenpoint and Williamsburg continue to rise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said Monitor Point presented their project directly to the community, including the United Neighbors Organization.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, actually, they were very receptive. They heard about two issues. One was that we needed deeper affordable housing \u2014 inclusive affordable housing \u2014 and a higher percentage of housing,\u201d he said. \u201cThis project \u2026 is providing 40% inclusive affordable housing on site.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"monitorSome speakers said Monitor Point will bring much-needed affordable housing to the nabe. Photo courtesy of John McCarten\/NYC Council Media Unit<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot wait any longer, we need this affordable housing right now,\u201d Guzman said.<\/p>\n

Maisha Morales, chair of the board at Southside United-HDFC Los Sures, said she supports funding the park \u2014 but that affordable housing shouldn\u2019t be \u201csacrificed\u201d for the park.<\/p>\n

Former HPD commissioner Louise Carroll agreed.\n<\/p>\n

During her tenure at the agency, Carroll said, she came to realize that the city \u201ccannot build its way out of the housing crisis alone,\u201d and that it should not come down to \u201cparks versus people.\u201d Monitor Point \u201cserves a bunch of different interests,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She defended the high market-rate rents, saying that the city\u2019s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program works because the market-rate units offset the affordable ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need market-rate housing to cover the cost of the low-income units,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cIf you have 100% affordable housing, those rents tod not cover the operation of the building, they do not cover the replacement of boilers, they don\u2019t cover the porters, they don\u2019t cover anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents, meanwhile, said Greenpoint and Williamsburg has been inundated with luxury housing along its flood-prone waterfront and worry that the project would threaten the park and its wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe height of the building will threaten our promise parks and the majority of market-rate apartments will create a new threshold for what a one-bedroom goes for in our neighborhood,\u201d said Debra Funkhouser, a longtime Williamsburg resident and volunteer gardener at Bushwick Inlet Park.<\/p>\n

\"bushwickOpponents worry the new development would threaten the inlet\u2019s delicate ecosystem and drive up rents. Photo by Kirstyn Brendlen<\/p>\n

The inlet is a \u201crarity\u201d in New York City, she said, and supports a \u201cvariety of life.\u201d She worried how combined sewer overflow from thousands of new residents would impact the outlet and the East River.<\/p>\n

Several speakers said the neighborhood does not offer enough park space for its rapidly-growing population. Longtime local Marissa Bohk said she feels Williamsburg and Greenpoint are \u201csinglehandedly tackling the housing crisis,\u201d having welcomed roughly 50,000 new residents since 2010.<\/p>\n

The nabe\u2019s green spaces have not kept up with the pace of that growth, she said, and the area now has just 0.6 acres of green space for every 1,000 residents, well short of the city\u2019s targeted 2.5 acres per 1,000.<\/p>\n

Trina McKeever, another longtime resident and a member of Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park, noted that the 2005 rezoning laid out height and setback requirements for residential buildings along the East River. If 40 Quay St. were rezoned, Monitor Point would surpass the heights envisioned for the area 20 years ago and would, in some places, come right up to the property line of Bushwick Inlet Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBushwick Inlet Park, in essence, becomes the public esplanade for the luxury development,\u201d she said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

What comes next?<\/p>\n

The City Council is expected to vote on Monitor Point on June 25. Kelly said at the hearing that Gotham will spend that time trying to increase affordability to help win support from Restler, whose vote is likely to influence the rest of the Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just 16% of the 30,000 units built in Williamsburg and Greenpoint are affordable, Restler told Brooklyn Paper.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to do better on public land. These are our rare but critically important opportunities to maximise affordable housing development,\u201d he said. \u201c If we\u2019re not going to get that affordable housing and the mayor and his administration are not committed to Bushwick Inlet Park, we should go back to the drawing board.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the project is voted down, Gotham could take it to the city\u2019s new Affordable Housing Appeals Board, according to Hell Gate<\/a>. Otherwise, the site would likely continue to house the MTA wash site, Fitzpatrick said at the hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fight over proposed high-rise development Monitor Point ramped up last week as the project finally came before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98579,433,98580,98,100,99,98581,69625,98582,7443,98583,2184,14236,87511,2969,46356,2422,98584,2979,2907,3075,98585,98586,98587,46357,141,98588,9,24,12,370,63,10649,98589,435,98590,98591,11385],"class_list":["post-252559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-40-quay-st","tag-affordable-housing","tag-box-street-park","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-bryan-kelly","tag-bushwick-inlet-park","tag-city-council-hearing","tag-climate-change","tag-debra-funkhouser","tag-development","tag-flooding","tag-friends-of-bushwick-inlet-park","tag-funding","tag-gotham-organization","tag-greenpoint","tag-greenpoint-monitor-museum","tag-hearing","tag-housing","tag-lincoln-restler","tag-los-sures","tag-louise-carroll","tag-maisha-morales","tag-monitor-point","tag-mta","tag-mta-wash-facility","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-parks","tag-quay-street","tag-rezoning","tag-sean-fitzpatrick","tag-trina-mckeever","tag-waterfront"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}