( photo and map credit: Toll Brothers)Even if our Community Board just voted to approve the spot rezoning needed by Toll Brothers for their condo development along the Gowanus Canal, it may never get off the ground. In yet another interview, Brother Robert Toll seems to be down on New York City and its housing market. Here is an article from Floyd Norris in the New York Times.
Toll on New York: It’s Dead
Robert I. Toll, the chief executive of the luxury home builder Toll Brothers, used to say New York City was the bright spot for home sales. No more.
“New York City was a nice stand-alone beacon,” he said in a conference call this afternoon. “Now it has joined the rest of the country.” That happened, he said, in mid-September after the financial crisis worsened.
“The financial industry has to lose 100,000 jobs,” he said, before his colleagues evidently tried to tell him that was too negative, and he amended his statement to say the loss could be smaller. “That’s got to have an impact,” he added.
One more negative: “The foreign market is not there as it was to support the price of condos,” he said.
He said that one condo project that his company is building in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn was now being marketed as “rent-to-own.”
Mr. Toll was asked in the call if any members of Congress were on board to back his plea to subsidize home prices. He said there had been talks, but he had no endorsements.
As to why the government should be subsidizing home builders when there is an oversupply of houses, he said the country needed the construction jobs.
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4 comments:
You overstate the authority of this community group by calling then "our" community board. We, the people, didn't elect a single one of them to represent our community interest on any issue. These people represent self-interest. This whole process is a joke--and makes clear that NYC is not a democracy.
Touché!
The Community Board members are indeed appointed by our Councilmen and our Borough President. I guess for that honor, board members have to tow the line, otherwise they do not get re-appointed. This happened two years ago when Marty kicked those members off who dared to be critical of the Atlantic Yards project.
This entire process makes me sick. From the first "community" outreach meetings arranged last year by our city "planners" where it was preordained years ago by them and the developer's lawyers, to push forward residential development along the Gowanus (where it makes the least sense to house people), to the last meetings when these same "planners" suddenly presented 12 story condos in answer to the desire (by only some--NOT all) of the community to have mixed use, when for at least the Toll project there is NO mixed use (don't make me laugh if you are thinking of the tiny day care on site as an example): this has all been one sick joke.
And further, for Ms. Kapur, our Brooklyn head of city planning, to have either the ignorance or gall to say 'we all agreed to rezone the Gowanus area', is OUTRAGEOUS! This claim is a lie. And further, when the best argument those who defend this kind of project against the charge people should not be living along an open and toxic sewer is that the condo owning victims placed like canaries in a coal mine will force the city to clean it up faster is both cynical and stupid. There is NO ONE in any city agency with any better idea as to how there can be any clean up of the Gowanus than flushing more water into the toxic toilet bowl. Flushing the toilet twice does not change it from being a toilet. That's how our sewer system works and no one at a city level is addressing the big picture. We need wetlands restoration and protection for real manufacturing along the Gowanus. Retail's cool, too. This rezoning "MX" means nothing. For the developer's profit, manufacturing will never beat residential. If it's not mandatory the developer will never do it. Look at Toll. (There's actually a self serving reason the city is thinking MX--it will help protect them from future lawsuits 'cause a manufacturing zone has a lesser environmental standard.
One last thing: When Buddy Scotto says we need senior housing he ignores the reason is Uncle Joe cashed out the family house in the inflated market, moved to Staten Island and granny's suddenly lost her apartment. Promoting condos further inflates the market and forces out more seniors.
I agree with these 2 prior statements and that is why I think various of the community organization in CG that focus on particular issues need to also be more political now. We need to make clear lines about who we will vote for and what we would like them to be doing in regard to development.
Vince
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