Industry City Will Delay Rezone, Agrees To Menchaca's Conditions

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Industry City has agreed to delay its controversial rezoning proposal a second time and comply with all conditions laid out by local Council Member Carlos Menchaca, a day after the elected official threatened to reject the plan should they submit it next week.

A spokesperson for the 16-building complex said that after a meeting with Menchaca on Friday morning, Industry City will hold off on submitting its application, which it originally submitted in March and then postponed, also at Menchaca's request. The rezoning application proposes adding more than 1 million square feet of development to the 35-acre waterfront campus.

The meeting followed a tense back-and-forth in the last few days as Menchaca threatened to deny the application outright if Industry City submitted it next week, despite a promise from CEO Andrew Kimball to revise the proposal to fit with demands the council member laid out on Monday.

Menchaca contended that Kimball's idea to negotiate the revisions during the review process of the application undermined the most important part of his demands — accountability. The council member had proposed creating a legally binding "Community Benefits Agreement" surrounding the conditions, which would eliminate two hotels from the plans and limit the amount of new retail.

“We met with Council Member Menchaca and his Working Group this morning, and once again agreed to delay certification into the ULURP process," said Lisa Serbaniewicz, a spokesperson for Industry City. "Following the path forward outlined by Council Member Menchaca earlier this week, Industry City has agreed to every request made by the Council Member...We are also prepared to negotiate and execute a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement with a community-based organization with support of the appropriate City agencies.”

Industry City's original application had proposed changing zoning rules to make way for 900,000 square feet of new food and retail space, 600,000 square feet of classrooms and educational facilities and a pair of hotels with more than 400 rooms.

Menchaca's conditions, which he announced at a fraught public meeting Monday, included not allowing the two hotels, limiting retail, creating a manufacturing hub managed by a non-profit, adding a technical public high school, building solar panels on Industry City roofs and requiring city investments in tenant organizing and affordable housing.

The council member said he will ask for commitment from the Mayor's Office to help make the investments and plans to form a group to be at one end of a "community benefits agreement" with Industry City.

The agreement Friday comes after years of discussing a rezoning plan for the industrial complex, which Jamestown, Belvedere Capital, and Angelo, Gordon & Co. bought in 2013.

The rezoning plans have gotten substantial push-back from the largely working class, immigrant neighborhood, who have argued that they will exacerbate gentrification already rampant in Sunset Park.

When announcing his stance on the proposal Monday, Menchaca left the meeting early after he was drowned out by chants of "no rezoning, no conditions" from those in the audience. Before the meeting, a coalition of organizations handed the council member a petition with 4,000 signatures against the rezoning proposal before his presentation.

Advocates from workers' unions who support the rezoning for the 15,000 jobs Industry City promises it will bring were also at the meeting. Many walked out along with Menchaca as other activists wouldn't let him finish his presentation.

Menchaca has contended that simply saying no to the application would not stop the rising rents, loss of manufacturing and displacement that Industry City has contributed to since its owners purchased the complex in 2013.