SUGARY DRINKS
CONTRIBUTE TO
INCREASING RATES
OF HEART DISEASE
AND TYPE 2 DIABETES
IN CHILDREN, TEENS
AND ADULTS.
Restaurants can help
reverse this trend by
making healthy drinks
like milk and water the
default drink option on
children’s menus.
#servekidsbetternyc
97% of kids’ restaurant meals are unhealthy.
With families eating out more often, it’s time
for restaurants to serve kids better.
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COURIER L 4 IFE, JAN. 18–24, 2019 DT
BEGINNING AGAIN?: Documents shared by the local community board suggest the city
may be looking for a new developer for its long-awaited Willoughby Square Park and garage
project Downtown, which if true would bring the years-in-the-making project back to square
one. Economic Development Corporation
Square Park may go
back to square one
City: Willoughby Street project will start from
scratch if builder can’t close deal this month
BY JULIANNE CUBA
A years-in-the-making plan to build a
new green space above a vending-machine
style parking facility on Willoughby
Street Downtown will start
from scratch at the end of the month, if
the city and its chosen developer can’t
wrap up their deal for the project, according
to a rep for the agency overseeing
the job.
“The developer has until Jan. 27 to
close on an agreement to develop the
site,” said an Economic Development
Corporation spokesman, who admitted
“it’s possible” another builder may be
chosen. “EDC is working diligently to
fi nd a path forward with the developer,
and deliver this long-awaited project
that will benefi t the community.”
The rep told this newspaper the
deadline for the deal — which agency
leaders previously said would close in
2018 — days after the local Community
Board 2 circulated documents suggesting
the city might sever ties with Long
Island–based American Development
Group, which it tapped to build both
Willoughby Square Park and the garage
beneath it back in 2013.
“Learned by phone from the (city)
that it is going to default the developer
of the Willoughby Square garage and
issue a fourth (Request For Proposals),
possibly for a garage no larger than is
permissible as-of-right,” CB2 District
Manager Rob Perris wrote in notes
dated Dec. 4, which he shared with the
public at a Jan. 9 meeting.
But American Development
Group’s head ensured his fi rm will
proceed with the long in-the-works
project, claiming he’s set to sign on
the dotted line days before the city’s
deadline, and that he’ll break ground
weeks later.
“We’re scheduled to close with EDC
on Jan. 22,” said Perry Finkelman.
“The work will commence on March
1.”
In October, Economic Development
Corporation bigwigs said they would
break ground on the job this month
— 15 years after the city promised to
build the new meadow in exchange for
upzoning much of Downtown, and a
decade after offi cials controversially
kicked some residents out of their
homes in the area, some of which were
rent-stabilized, to make way for construction.
And it’s not the fi rst time doubts
swirled around the future of Willoughby
Square Park and the garage,
which will park cars using a system
equipped with light sensors, machines,
and other technology that automatically
moves vehicles from an
entry room, where drivers drop them
off, to one of its below-ground parking
bays.
Last year, city offi cials doubted
that Finkleman could come up with
enough cash to fund the job, leading
him to scale back the underground facility
in order to secure the necessary
fi nancing.
That downsizing included cutting
the garage’s original 700 spots to 467,
and shrinking it from three to two levels,
which cut the project’s budget from
roughly $97 to $82 million, Finkleman
told this newspaper at the time.
/danonnarosas.com