Industry City’s owners have agreed to delay their rezoning application for the 30-acre complex, days after City Council member Carlos Menchaca said that the plan would be “dead on arrival” without more time for community input.
Menchaca and Sunset Park’s Community Board 7 argued that the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) does not give local stakeholders enough time to fully evaluate the impact of a rezoning. City Council generally defers to the local council member – Menchaca in this case – when voting on rezoning applications that the City Planning Department has certified.
“In consideration of the request made by our City Council Member and Community Board, Industry City has agreed to postpone public review of the proposed rezoning of the property,” Industry City spokesperson Lisa Serbaniewicz said in a statement Friday. “We fully appreciate the desire to continue that meaningful economic growth while ensuring it aligns with the broader needs of the entire community.”
Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball filed plans late last month to rezone the sprawling Sunset Park complex, seeking to allow for 1.45 million square feet of new construction at the site, including a pair of hotels totaling 420 rooms.
Though the complex has had success in drawing a variety of tenants to the project, about half of the space remains vacant or occupied by storage and warehousing.
Representatives for Industry City did not specify how long the owners – a partnership between Jamestown, Belvedere Capital, Cammeby’s International and Angelo, Gordon & Co. – are prepared to delay the application.
Menchaca has welcomed the owners’ decision. “This is the right call and we thank Industry City for living up to its prior commitments to engage with the Sunset Park community,” he said in a statement. “In addition to needing time to complete the community engagement process started last year, a critical and transparent analysis of the rezoning proposal’s possible impacts on displacement must be analyzed before starting [public review].” [Politico] — Kevin Sun