Bushwick's Rheingold Brewery Developers Renege On Affordable Units Deal: Report

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Rheingold Brewery developers refuse to honor their promise to provide 24 percent affordable housing in the enormous apartment complex, according to reports.

All Year Management and the Rabsky Group — owners of the vast 1,411-unit development going up on Montieth Street and Bushwick Avenue — have taken 88 units off their affordable housing list, according to a DNAinfo report.

The move violates a non-binding agreement the developers made with city officials in 2013 to market 24 percent of the units at an affordable rate, DNAinfo reported.

But because the local zoning law requires only 20 percent of the units be affordable, the city has no legal recourse to demand more, said a Department of Housing and Preservation spokeswoman.

"We tried and we sought advice," said Louise Carroll, the Associate Commissioner of Housing Incentives. "And that's the limit of our [power]."

A Rabksy spokeswoman told DNAinfo that the company never promised to provide more than the legal minimum of affordable units.

Check out the back history of the Rheingold development — which includes sleep-ins, protests and secret votes — on DNAinfo.com

Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps/Nov. 2016