Now that’s a sweet deal!
Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s favorite charity got a $2.07-million tax-free loan from the developers of the former Domino sugar factory less than two weeks before Lopez and his protégé, Councilman Steve Levin, endorsed the controversial Williamsburg project.
Housing lender Community Preservation Corp. refinanced a Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council mortgage on June 17, 2010, as the City Council debated its subsidiary’s $1.2 billion rezoning plan.
The low-interest loan eliminated real-estate taxes because the loan is state backed.
Both Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic Party boss, and his former employee, Levin, strongly opposed the developer’s proposed 2,200-unit complex for months.
But both lawmakers suddenly dropped their objections and, on June 29, agreed to a rezoning that kept the plan intact.
Susan Pollock, Domino’s project manager, said there was “zero connection” between the loan and political support.
Levin claimed that he had no knowledge of the loan and that he “stood up to intense pressure . . . in order to fight for a better development.”
Ridgewood Bushwick CEO James Cameron said he knew nothing about the loan.
Lopez did not return a request for comment.