Breaking: Toll Brothers Gives Up!

Luxury home builder Toll Brothers has apparently given up on their current quest to line the shores of a toxic waste dump with condos. From the The Real Deal (and the Brooklyn Paper):

"As threatened, Toll Brothers has walked away from its $5.75 million down payment on the Gowanus Canal site of a would-be 477-unit mixed-income housing development because of the waterway's recent designation as a Superfund site, the Brooklyn Paper reported. "It just didn't financially make sense to close on the properties and then have to wait 15 to 20 years until we could develop them," said Toll's David Von Spreckelsen."

"“These were never just idle threats,” Von Spreckelsen said. “I spent five years of my life working on getting this done, and I don’t think anything is going to happen there for a very long time.”"

Sounds pretty bitter, especially when we keep in mind that there is a similar situation down the canal a few lots where planned housing IS being built. Sounds like Toll Brothers (like John Quadrozzi before) are using Superfund designation as a convenient means to abandon projects for other reasons.