Brooklyn Borough Board Hands Over Public Library to Condo Developer

The Brooklyn Heights public library will be torn down and re-built on the ground floor of a luxury condo tower. Photos via Marvel Architects

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Surrounded by angry neighborhood activists, a roomful of Brooklyn politicians approved a crazy-contentious plan Tuesday night to let Hudson Companies, a private developer, re-build the Brooklyn Heights public library at 280 Cadman Plaza West and stack 36 stories of condos on top of it.

The vote at Brooklyn Borough Hall closed out months of fiery back-and-forth between the plan's yay- and naysayers.

Brooklyn Borough Board members — aka, all the NYC City Council members who represent Brooklyn — appeared to have their minds made up going into the Tuesday-night discussion and vote, which together lasted 20 minutes maximum.

Just as board members prepared to cast their votes, Michael White, a lead activist rallying against the plan, tried to interject.

But Borough President Eric Adams cut him off. "We can disagree without being disagreeable, and we will not be disrespectful," Adams barked from his seat at the head of the table.

Adams threatened to kick White out of the meeting if he kept interrupting board proceedings.

"You're not going to disrupt my meeting," Adams said.

As recently as early February, the borough president was expressing major doubts as to whether re-building the Brooklyn Heights library branch within a condo tower was the best thing for the borough. He had originally hoped Hudson Companies might add on some elementary-school classrooms at 280 Cadman Plaza West, as well as more affordable, need-based housing units.

Any remaining doubts in Adams' mind, however, seemed to have been put to rest by Tuesday evening, when he gave the sale a final blessing.

In its current and final form, as negotiated by City Councilman Steve Levin in December and approved by his colleagues Tuesday night, the $52 million deal will require Hudson Companies to:

• Incorporate a brand-new library into the ground floor of its condo tower

• Add STEM education labs to the library

• Keep the library open seven days a week
  

• Build another 5,000-square-foot library in the DUMBO/Vinegar Hill/Farragut Houses area

• Build approximately 115 units of affordable housing in nearby Clinton Hill (but none within the Brooklyn Heights tower)

Still, neighborhood groups like Citizens Defending Libraries and Love Brooklyn Libraries are skeptical that Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) officials and city politicians did a thorough enough job assessing the property value at 280 Cadman Plaza West and getting all they could from the buyer.

Many community members are also convinced that selling off a public asset will be a temporary and unwise fix for the greater BPL system's financial woes — one that will set a risky precedent in the borough.

Two elderly women who attended the Tuesday-night meeting, one from Brooklyn Heights and one from Park Slope, cornered Councilman Levin in Brooklyn Borough Hall's main room after the vote.

"In the end, you'll find yourself behind bars," Marilyn Berkon told Levin in a scolding tone.

Despite his win in board chambers that night, the councilman looked frazzled; worked; defeated. "I assure you, I didn't do anything illegal," he replied quietly, eyeing the door.