I use quotes in the headline here because contrary to the Brooklyn Paper’s headline, it’s not Isack Rosenberg himself who is bankrupt, but rather one of his other development projects.

Rosenberg is trying to raise money by seekign a city rezoning of his lumber yard site from manufacturing to residential — a move that would vastly increase the property’s value.

True enough. But the rezoning isn’t going help Rosenberg meet his December 21 bank deadline to settle a $45 million debt on the Warehouse 11 project (aka the Roebling Oil Field).

A few points with regard to how this impacts the Rose Plaza development:

1) For the most part, it doesn’t. Rose Plaza is a separate project, which may or not get built by this developer. Whatever rezoning passes will run with the property (and increase the value of the property). Whatever special permits are approved will also run with the property, but a new owner could decide not to use them and do an “as-of-right” project.

2) One important way that it does effect the project is that a new owner (or even the current owner) could decide to opt for a different architect or landscape architect, ditching the nice designs that are being presented now in favor of something of lesser quality (this, perhaps?). Such bait-and-switches are not unheard of – Douglaston Development did it at the Edge, dropping Enrique Norten in favor of Stephen Jacobs. That is why the CB1 resolution rejecting the proposal made such a big deal about giving the board a role in future design changes.