Hundreds of businesses that own land near the proposed Brooklyn-Queens trolley line stand to benefit from the project, but at least 10 have something else in common — they all contributed to a nonprofit promoting Mayor de Blasio’s “progressive” agenda.
The estimated $2.5 billion rail project, which would connect Astoria to Sunset Park and promises to send property values along its route soaring, is being pushed by the Friends of Brooklyn Queens Connector.
Developers such as Two Trees Management, Forest City Ratner and the Durst Organization all have representatives in the group and have either directed money to de Blasio’s re-election campaign or to the Campaign for One New York, which critics have derided as a mayoral slush fund.
An affiliate of Two Trees, 316 Kent Construction LLC, gave $100,000 to CONY in April 2015.
Two Trees is converting the Domino Sugar plant in Williamsburg into high-end housing and owns a number of properties in the hard-to-reach Dumbo neighborhood that would be along the trolley route.
Individuals affiliated with Forest City Ratner raised more than $73,000 for de Blasio’s 2013 mayoral campaign, and the company has extensive real-estate holdings near the proposed trolley line.
The Durst family, which is working on the 2.4 million-square-foot Halletts Point development along the Astoria waterfront, and its affiliates have given more than $74,000 to de Blasio’s campaigns.
Experts say the trolley is sure to increase nearby property values.
“The general rule is just look at the High Line. The market area and properties in close proximity are likely to benefit,” said Jonathan Miller, president of the Miller Samuel real-estate firm.
City Hall spokesman Wiley Norvell said the administration started considering a waterfront trolley “as part of our lead-up to the citywide ferry service plan,” which de Blasio announced in February 2015.
That’s the same month Friends of Brooklyn Queens Connector registered as a nonprofit.
“Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers . . . live in these neighborhoods. Linking those people and opportunities together has been a policy opportunity since we first took office,” said Norvell. “The merits here couldn’t be more clear.”