Fight To Stop Apartments At Brooklyn Bridge Park Heads To Court

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A lawsuit to prevent apartment complexes from going up in Brooklyn Bridge Park will head to court after settlement talks between the Brooklyn Heights Association and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation failed.

The Brooklyn Heights Association must now prepare to fight the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, the nonprofit responsible for the park's maintenance and operation which wants the development, in court in June.

Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings asked the BHA and the BBP to find a compromise outside of court at a hearing in mid-April, but two weeks of back-and-forth proved unsuccessful.

“Unfortunately, no progress was made towards settlement,” said the BHA in a statement. “The next step will be an argument before Justice Billings on the merits of the lawsuit.”

Rumors surrounded the out-of-court negotiations and last Friday the BHA issued a “fake news alert” to quash the notion that the two parties were collaborating on a “secret deal,” adding that the talks were still in preliminary stages.

Their debate is a financial one — the BHA lawsuit alleges that building two residential buildings on Pier 6, in the southernmost area of Brooklyn Bridge Park near Atlantic Avenue, violates the BBP’s promise to develop the land only when it became a fiscal necessity to fund park maintenance.

But the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation argues the development is crucial and that the BHA manipulated their estimates.

The numbers will be argued when the BHA suit against the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, Empire State Development Corporation RAL Development Services and Oliver’s Real Estate Group returns to court on either June 7 or June 9, according to the BHA statement.