Pfizer sold the rest of its property including the plant itself last year to Acumen Capital Partners, which has been renting space to many local food companies - making everything from pickles to ice cream.
However, the drug giant angered some local politicians by backing off what they said was a promise to donate the property to be redeveloped as affordable housing, which Pfizer denied. Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez introduced a bill to seize their land by eminent domain, but the effort failed.
The community groups decided to try to work with Pfizer to buy the land on the open
The property is part of a swath of land around Williamsburg’s Broadway Triangle, on the border of Bedford Stuyvesant that has been mostly barren for years. The city launched a plan to build housing on an adjacent site, but it was blocked by a court after local groups sued charging the housing would favor Hasidic families over blacks and Latinos.
The groups bidding for the Pfizer property say their plan “will ensure a balanced economic, racial and religious community.”
