The development of Brooklyn Bridge Park, overseen by its then president David Lowin, promised New York City affordable housing with striking views of the Manhattan skyline. What they ultimately built were 849 housing units, most of which were market rate condos and apartments. Of that number, 10 studios apartments, 5 one-bedroom apartments, 4 two-bedroom apartments and 6 three-bedroom apartments were built for families who make under $100,000 a year. 25 “affordable” apartments, that was their gift to the city.
Meanwhile, they charged $19.4 million for a penthouse in one of the buildings, which at the time was the highest price tag ever recorded for a condo in Brooklyn. They also built a luxury hotel where the weekday rate for the least expensive room ranges from $723 to $1174 a night before taxes. The park corporation under David Lowin opted to build a novelty reverse suspension bridge connecting Brooklyn Bridge Park to Squibb Park at a cost of over $3 million dollars. As soon as it opened to the public it was obvious there were structural issues with the bridge and spent the next several years closed until it could be redesigned at a cost of $6.5 million more. David Lowin also conveniently discovered the piers holding up most of the park were in bad shape years after construction commenced, allowing him to adjust the operating budget of the park by another $150 million. This was a part of his excuse for not building more affordable housing.
David Lowin, now a senior vice president at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, a quasi-public entity that answers directly to mayor Eric Adams, is spearheading another hyper-gentrifying megaproject in Brooklyn, the redevelopment of Brooklyn Marine Terminal. This would greatly change the landscape of Red Hook, a neighborhood whose low income residents have already been plagued by Robert Moses dissecting the neighborhood with the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, a severe lack of public transportation, catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Sandy, and real estate speculators buying up and redeveloping Red Hook as a quiet enclave for the wealthy.
David Lowin’s plan for Red Hook involves shrinking the size of Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which would impact the only container terminal in the area sending goods to and from the Carribean. The plan also includes the construction of 6,000 unafforable apartments along the waterfront from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Red Hook. There is currently no plan to address the lack of adequate public transportation and the parking shortage in Red Hook.