Sometimes They Hear You

Lost City today received a message from Time Equities, the org that is behind the Lamm Institute mews development project that has been deemed the Amity Street Horror by some (not me) and raised considerable ire among some South Brooklyn locals who are getting fed up with rampant building in their neighborhoods.

Since Francis Greenburger, CEO and Chairman, Time Equities Inc., was good enough to write in to this lowly blog (or was good enough to take the time to approve a letter drafted by his TE staff), I feel it only fair to print the response in full:

Time Equities and its partner Lucky Boy do not want to present a project that does not have community support. We thought the mews approach did because it was supported verbally and in writing by a number of community residents and local architects based on meetings we held in November and December. The mews design was also recommended for approval by the Landmarks staff who reviewed the plan.

It may be that some community members who took issue with the mews did not attend these meetings. The benefit of the Landmark process is that it gives all stakeholders a chance to be heard. Several concerns that arose at the meetings led to changes.

We value feedback from the community and the commission and will continue to address concerns, such as those that arose in the early meetings which led to design revisions of the Henry Street façade of the new townhouse.

At this point, we will re-conceive the project in a traditional street wall approach and try to present a plan that is responsive to the input received at the most recent Landmark hearing. As we did last time, we will reach out to the community and Landmark staff prior to presenting the final concept to the commission.

- Francis Greenburger, CEO and Chairman, Time Equities Inc.

All in all, a fairly classy letter I'd say. I still don't wholly trust you, Francis (nothing personal—we've just been burned a lot lately round here), but I doff my hat.