New Whole Foods Tied to Height of Proposed Building by Etta Sanders Downtown residents have long craved new food stores. But whether a 55,000 square foot Whole Foods supermarket opens on Warren Street may depend upon the height of the building that rises above it. That building, a part of the development of the lot bordered by Warren, West, Murray and Greenwich Streets known as Site 5B, was limited to a height of 70 feet in a September 2004 agreement between the city and Councilman Alan Gerson. The site’s developer, Minskoff Equities, now says that a supermarket would only be financially viable if the height of the Warren Street building were increased to nearly 135 feet to allow for the creation of 48 condominium townhouses. ”Using all of that ground-floor space for Whole Foods is less economically attractive to the developer than breaking it up into small stores along Warren Street, so there’s a cost of having Whole Foods in place,” said Benjamin McGrath, CFO of Minskoff Equities. “Having the additional apartment space above does help the economics of the project.” Raising the height of the building could also give a funding boost to a community center that will be part of another new residential building on a lot behind P.S. 234. In the September agreement, the city promises to contribute one-third of the increased proceeds from the sale of the property if Community Board 1 approves a taller building. According to both the developer and Gerson, that would mean more than $1 million for Manhattan Youth, which will run the center. But some neighborhood parents say that if the building casts shadows on P.S. 234 and Washington Market Park it would be too high a price to pay. Many classrooms, the cafeteria and the school’s library have windows that face Warren Street. At a public “scoping” session on Jan. 5 to determine what will be examined in a required environment impact statement (EIS) before the development can move forward, George Olsen, former P.S. 234 PTA president and a CB1 member, called the 135-foot height “excessive” and urged that the city and CB1 consider, “all reasonable alternatives without sacrificing the needs of the developer, but keeping the concerns of PS 234 for light and air in mind.” McGrath, and the project's architect, Chris Cooper of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, said the current design will have less of a shadow impact on the school than the original plan. The 135-foot building will have setbacks at 46 feet and 112 feet, and by moving some apartments to Warren Street they were able to reduce the height of another building at Murray and Greenwich Streets. Community residents also told the Economic Development Corporation, which held the session, to carefully consider the effects of increased traffic, noise and air pollution during the simultaneous construction of several new buildings, as well as crowding once the proposed 420 new apartments are occupied. “The 720 children at P.S. 234 are going to be living through what I expect will be four or five years of major construction adjacent to their school. During that period there’s going to be dust and incredible amounts of noise and vibrations,” Kevin Fisher, P.S. 234 PTA president said at the scoping session. Fisher also said that relying on apartment size to estimate the number of children who will be living in the new residential buildings near the school could be a mistake. “People will live in studio and one-bedroom apartments for a good school,” said Fisher. Wils said the community board would consider the project after the EIS has been issued. A new supermarket is a "very important" part of the development, she said, but admitted that there may be no way to ensure that Minskoff will lease to a supermarket even if the height increase is approved. After the session, McGrath said the deal could fall through if there are delays because Whole Foods is on a tight schedule to find new locations. And in the September agreement Minskoff promised only to "make reasonable best efforts to find a quality supermarket tenant provided that the space is ready to be occupied by 2006."