Developer Spars with CB1 Over Plan to Thwart Building

By Ronald Drenger

Milstein Properties finally went public in its battle with Community Board 1 over 250 Water Street.
For months, the real estate powerhouse has been quietly lobbying against CB1’s effort to bar large-scale development in the South Street Seaport area, which would prevent the developer from putting a residential tower at 250 Water Street.

Last month, Milstein representatives and board members met face to face over the board’s proposal to change zoning rules and limit the allowable building height in the Seaport neighborhood. That plan, now under review by the city’s Department of City Planning, will be voted on by the City Planning Commission as early as next month.

“It’s inappropriate, against all principles of planning, and frankly, I question the constitutionality of it,” Ross Moskowitz, a Milstein attorney, said at a meeting of CB1’s Seaport/ Civic Center Committee.

“It’s antithetical to the interests of modern functional housing design,” said Milstein vice president James Yasser.
CB1 wants to protect the architectural fabric of the Seaport neighborhood, which has mostly four- and five-story buildings, many from the 19th century. Although the area is a historic district, zoning rules still allow high-rise construction and 250 Water Street, now a 48,000-square-foot parking lot, is a prime development site.

Since buying the lot in 1979, the Milsteins have proposed more than half a dozen buildings for the site, up to 43 stories tall, that were rejected by the Landmarks Commission as inappropriate for the historic district.

The community board wants to bring the zoning regulations in line with the historic district designation so it doesn’t have to keep fighting such development plans.

“It’s targeted spot zoning,” charged Moskowitz. “It’s clear that the main thrust of this is 250 Water Street. You can’t do that.” Instead of conforming to a zoning change, Milstein wants to bring another design to the Landmarks Commission.

“You’ve been unable to get a building approved for 20 years,” CB1 District Manager Paul Goldstein said, noting that other developers in the district were working within Landmarks guidelines.

“We think we have come up with a design,” Moskowitz responded, “that meets what Landmarks is looking for, and hopefully meets what the community board is looking for.”

Milstein is modifying a 1997 design for a residential building with two towers, 14- and 30-stories tall. The developer says the project would not be allowed under CB1’s proposed zoning, but will not reveal the design.
“It’s smaller and more elegant than the ’97 design,” Yasser said.

In arguing against the rezoning plan, which is supported by the Alliance for Downtown New York and the Seaport North Business Coalition, Moskowitz also cited Lower Manhattan’s need for economic development, saying that Milstein would not build on the site under the proposed zoning.

But Goldstein cited an analysis done earlier this year by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, which said the proposal would allow Milstein up to 35 percent return on its investment. “By most people’s accounts, that’s more than a fair return,” said Goldstein. Rezoning advocates were scheduled to confer with Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff on Dec. 5.