The plan to build a grocery store and retail complex at the six-acre site in the
Brooklyn Navy Yard, known as Admirals Row, was dealt a blow earlier this month
after a principal for the designated developer was charged in a federal bribery scandal, and the developer was subsequently removed from the project.
This week on Insights from The Real Deal, we speak with commercial sales and
leasing broker Ofer Cohen, president of Brooklyn-based Terra CRG. Cohen, who
is not involved with the project, talks about the need for a supermarket at the site,
and why the corruption probe may have come at an opportune time.
Brooklyn Navy Yard Development, which oversees the larger 300-acre industrial
site on the waterfront north of Downtown Brooklyn, removed PA Developers
two weeks ago after its principal, Aaron Malinksy, was accused by federal
prosecutors of funneling about $472,500 to Brooklyn State Senator Carl Kruger.
PA Developers, an affiliate of Midtown-based PA Associates, was picked in
April 2010 to build the 55,000-square-foot grocery store, 30,000 square feet of
retail and 125,000 square feet of industrial space, on the space now occupied by
dilapidated residential and commercial buildings.
The Navy Yard says it will take over the land use process from PA Developers,
which is expected to begin in the coming weeks. The city is expected to take
ownership of the six acres from the U.S. Army National Guard sometime this
summer.
But sources said the process to name a new developer has not yet been
devised.
Kruger’s attorney has said the lawmaker would be “totally vindicated,” and
Malinsky, through his attorney, told The Real Deal that he intends, “to contest the
charges vigorously and work to protect his outstanding reputation.” Neither man
has been indicted and so has not entered a plea.