Get ready for even taller skyscrapers and more densely packed neighborhoods.
Mayor de Blasio told a closed-door meeting of real estate barons Wednesday that he has no “hangup” about allowing them to supersize their developments if it means creating more affordable housing.
“As we get to know each other . . . I hope people hear me loud and clear that the only way I can achieve my goals is if we are building and building aggressively,” he said.
“I’m deadly serious about 200,000 units of affordable housing.”
Leaving no doubt what he meant, de Blasio said reaching his housing goals would require erecting the biggest buildings possible.
He called it a “willingness to use height and density to the maximum feasible extent. This is something I’ve said in our previous meetings I don’t have a hangup about. I think it’s necessary to do what I’m here to do.”
De Blasio made his remarks to the executive board of the Real Estate Board of New York, known as REBNY, where he was warmly received. His office later released a recording of the mayor’s opening remarks to the group but not his comments during a question-and-answer session.
De Blasio said he is a “very progressive guy with very progressive goals,” but that he also is someone who “valued and prized the practicality.”
“I think you can’t be a progressive if you don’t have a balanced budget, and if you don’t have fiscal stability everything else is theory,” he said.
During the mayoral race, de Blasio vowed to pursue a policy of “mandatory inclusionary zoning,” which would require a developer to set aside a portion of a building’s units for poor and middle-income residents in exchange for permission to build bigger.
De Blasio’s intentions, which he laid out in starker terms Wednesday, have caused concern in some quarters.
“If we want to be a world-class city, it’s not how many tall buildings we have, it’s how we get to them,” said Peg Breen, president of the Landmarks Conservancy. “The trains are packed, the streets are full of potholes. The mayor needs to focus on our dire infrastructure issues first, before we continue to march skyward.”
De Blasio also made a pitch at the meeting for his tax-the-rich plan to pay for an expansion of prekindergarten.
The mayor said his proposal was necessary for the city to grow.
“I could not be more passionate or focused on this. This is the future,” he said.
Although he didn’t specifically ask for money, several attendees said they believed de Blasio hinted they should contribute to a nonprofit organization his team has created to lobby Albany to approve his tax-hike plan.
At one point, de Blasio said, “I’ll state the obvious: We need your help to do it.”
One source who attended said, “He clearly wants money for it, though he wouldn’t say.”
Some real estate executives who attended said they were wary about contributing because Gov. Cuomo opposes de Blasio’s tax plan. The governor has called for using existing state revenue to pay for expanding prekindergarten.
“Nobody wants to get into a pissing match with the governor,” said a REBNY member.
De Blasio’s visit was well-received among the group, who burst into applause at the end of his remarks.
“I think he’s trying to combat the perception that the business community, and especially the real estate industry, is scared of him. It’s in everybody’s interest that we work together,” said one REBNY member.
That person said he sensed de Blasio was telling the group, “We haven’t figured anything out yet and we want to work with you guys to figure things out.”
De Blasio also talked about a stalled plan to rezone a 73-block area around Grand Central Terminal to allow for much taller buildings.
That plan — one of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s pet projects — was shelved after the mayoral election, in part over de Blasio’s objections.
Community groups complained about overdevelopment, and a union voiced concerns about whether any new hotel built under the plan would have union labor.
During the campaign, de Blasio said development rights were priced too low.
De Blasio told the REBNY board Wednesday that he wanted the project to move forward, hopefully by the end of 2014.
mchaban@nydailynews.com
