Posted Apr 20, 2022, 3:26 AM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 52,606
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This is the guy who was practically foaming at the mouth over Amazon’s headquarters in Queens…
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...-plan-00025385
Former Council speaker advising Vornado on controversial Penn Station plan
As the Hochul administration advances a new iteration of the proposal with the prominent developer Vornado, Corey Johnson is counseling the builder on the plan.
By JANAKI CHADHA
04/18/2022
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In 2018, when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo floated a proposal for new towers around Penn Station to help fund upgrades to the rundown transit hub, then-City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said the plan “must be stopped.”
Now, as the Hochul administration advances a new iteration of the proposal with the prominent developer Vornado, Johnson — who left elected office in December and has since started the lobbying firm Cojo Strategies — is counseling the builder on the plan.
“I’ve always demonstrated my love for New York City through my work, which continues to ring true as I help advise on the most important and complicated infrastructure project before our city today that will impact hundreds of thousands of working New Yorkers,” Johnson said in a statement to POLITICO.
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The plan, which is being overseen by the state’s economic development agency, would provide tax breaks to Vornado in exchange for the firm financing upgrades to the rail station. Johnson’s involvement in favor of the proposal is a departure from his prior decision to distance himself from the industry by swearing off donations from developers and landlords. It’s also a change from his previous concerns about the same state process that’ll govern the Penn Station project, which was part of his opposition to the Amazon deal in 2018.
“He really ran on an anti-conflict of interest platform by refusing to take real estate money, which I thought was very brave and laudable,” said Layla Law-Gisiko, a critic of the proposal and land use chair for Manhattan Community Board 5. “It is surprising that there would be such a shift in focus.”
The controversial Penn Station plan, which falls within Johnson’s former Council district, envisions up to nine new skyscrapers of largely office space around the transit hub. Vornado would be a prime beneficiary of the deal as the majority owner of most of the sites in the proposed development area.
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The proposal would be the biggest development project in the city’s history if approved. It is moving forward through a state process that circumvents the city’s lengthy land use review procedure. The city procedure requires approval by the Council. The Penn Station redevelopment will go through the same process the state was slated to use to advance ill-fated plans for a new Amazon headquarters in Queens — which Johnson opposed at the time, in part because the Council was cut out of it.
“If this goes through, the state will be able to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants in one of the busiest sections of Manhattan,” Johnson said in 2018 of Penn Station plans introduced by Cuomo. “We’re talking no environmental review process and zero input from New York City. It’s not fair to this city, which must be able to control its destiny. And it’s not fair to the public, who will be denied any type of legitimate review process.”
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In the statement provided to POLITICO Wednesday, Johnson said public meetings that have happened over the last four years have resulted in more local input.
“This project has had robust community engagement as the General Project Plan moved forward, including more than 16 public [Community Advisory Committee Working Group] meetings with elected officials and advocates as well as dozens of other forums with community members, residents and other key stakeholders,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he’s proud to join several unions, Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams “in supporting a project that will create thousands of prevailing wage jobs, add significant public realm improvements throughout the surrounding district and transform the nation’s busiest train station into a modern commuter hub for the people.”
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The exclusion of the City Council from a major development deal was among Johnson’s concerns when he opposed the Amazon deal in 2018, in addition to tax breaks the company was slated to receive and its record on labor issues.
“Amazon is one of the richest companies in the world, but you can’t put a price on community input, which has been missing throughout this entire process,” Johnson said in a statement at the time. “I find that lack of engagement and the fact that the negotiations excluded the City Council – which is elected by New Yorkers to guide land use projects with communities in mind – extremely troubling.”
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