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March 9, 2010
Some wary about Superfunded Gowanus
Courier-Life Publications
by Gary Buiso
Here's a blast from the past.
Dolly Williams, a former member of the City Planning Commission, told an overflow crowd at a public meeting last week that a potential deal fell through because of the stigma associated with the designation, which will trigger a $500 million federally overseen cleanup of the polluted canal.
“I just lost the sale. It’s because of Superfund,” said Williams, co-founder of A. Williams Construction, a general contracting firm based on Third Avenue.
She said the prospective buyer of a property on Ninth Street read about the designation, and was suddenly “no longer interested.”
Williams said a depressed real market has people already adopting a “wait and see” attitude. But the designation is going to make buyers even more cautious, she warned, making it difficult for people like Williams who, she said, “work and create [to] jump start the economy.”
In 2007, Williams, Brooklyn’s representative on the commission, was not reinstated by Borough President Marty Markowitz after questions were raised in the press about her financial stake in proposals or projects being weighedby the City Planning — including the rezoning of the Gowanus and the Atlantic Yards project.
NoLandGrab: The (self-professed) altruism of real estate developers never ceases to amaze us.
Posted by eric at March 9, 2010 2:14 PM