CBA and Gateway

In a corollary to the Insider's discussion of the BTM relocation plan Erik Engquist tells us that the Bronx council delegation's approval of Gateway "is contingent on Related ratifying a just-drafted community benefits agreement that includes a reasonable relocation offer for the merchants." That is certainly surprising to us especially because the original draft presented to us had no mention of the Bronx Terminal Market relocation.

In our last discussion with key members of the Bronx BP's CBA taskforce there appeared to be a mutiny brewing over Adolfo's attempt to control the community's autonomous input into the CBA. It doesn't appear likely that all of this was resolved, so we'd be interested to know when this purported CBA was drafted, who signed on to it, and what it says.

As we have said all along a CBA should ideally be negotiated prior to any ULURFP process so that the community benefits are clearly delineated going into the review. In addition, the community should also be independently represented by counsel and the CBA should be negotiated in direct talks with the developer. None of which has happened with Gateway.