Way Cleared for Huge Development

 by Etta Sanders

A deal reached last month between community representatives and the city will bring the most sweeping changes to the face of Tribeca since the construction of Independence Plaza North 30 years ago.

Photo of Sites 5B/5C is labeled with height limitations agreed to between the city and Councilman Alan Gerson. Not included is the 70-foot height limit on Site 5B on Warren Street for a "non-residential use." Placement of labels in approximate. Photo: The Tribeca Trib
Three residential towers, a 27,000-square-foot community center, and a pre-k and kindergarten feeder school are included in the development plans for two sites near P.S. 234, on the blocks bordered by Greenwich, Chambers, West and Murray Streets. A new pre-k-through-8th-grade school east of Broadway is also part of the agreement hammered out by City Councilman Alan Gerson and Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff.

The agreement clears the way for the development of the two city-owned lots, known as 5B and 5C, next to P.S. 234, where the community has been fighting various city-supported projects for more than 15 years.

“It’s not everything we wanted, but it is the best possible outcome for the community given this administration’s position,” said Gerson, who had threatened to block City Council approval of the sale of Site 5C to developer Scott Resnick if a satisfactory deal for the community could not be worked out.

The Council okayed the sale to Resnick on Sept. 9 and construction on Site 5C, behind P.S. 234, may begin by the end of this year. Edward Minskoff, the developer of site 5B, across Warren Street from the school, still has to go through an additional approval process for his project, but with community negotiations completed he should face few obstacles. Minskoff said he hopes to break ground by the second quarter of next year and have the buildings completed the following year, “if everyone cooperates.”

The agreement was the result of months of negotiations between city officials and community representatives, including Gerson, Community Board 1 chairwoman Madelyn Wils and Bob Townley, executive director of Manhattan Youth, which will run the planned community center.

Those meetings were sometimes heated, Gerson recalled. “There were a few shouting matches between me and the the deputy mayor,” he said.

The most contentious issue, according to Wils, was the heights of the buildings. “There was some ingenuity that had to go into not creating just
Site 5B developer Edward Minskoff. Photo: Patrick MacMullan
two huge, massive buildings that covered the entire spaces,” she said. “This took a lot of work.”

The plans for 5C include:
  • A residential building up to 300 feet tall.
  • A 27,000-square-foot community center with a 75-foot-long pool.
  • A pre-k and kindergarten early learning center with 10 classrooms, intended to ease crowding at P.S. 234.
For site 5B, bordered by Greenwich, West, Murray and Warren Streets, the agreement calls for:
  • A residential condominium tower with a maximum height of 370 feet on West Street. That building, Minskoff said, will have mostly two- and three-bedroom apartments.
  • A residential tower up to 200 feet tall at the corner of Murray and Greenwich Streets. Fifty percent of those rental units will be subsidized.
  • A non-residential building no taller than 70 feet directly across from P.S. 234 on Warren Street.
  • A commitment by the developer to try to find a “quality supermarket tenant” for retail space on the site.
Although the deal provides a broad outline for the development of the two sites and the creation of a new east-side school, significant challenges lie ahead and many details are still to be determined, including the financing for the public amenities, the zoning and administration of the new schools (see story, page 4) and how to minimize the effects of years of construction on P.S. 234.

Site 5C developer Scott Resnick. Photo: Carl Glassman

Manhattan Youth will need to raise nearly $5 million to outfit the community center. (If the budget exceeds that amount, the city has committed to pay $900,000). That fundraising effort got a boost last spring when Goldman Sachs promised $1 million for the facility. According to last month’s agreement, the community may also help finance the community center by allowing a building taller than 70 feet on Warren Street across from P.S. 234.

Development of the sites will mean that P.S. 234 will be in the midst of massive construction projects for the next several years. With the reconstruction of Chambers Street from Broadway to West Street scheduled to begin in January and take 14 to 18 months, the school will be surrounded by construction on three sides for a year or more.

In addition, P.S. 234 may temporarily lose access to the playground behind the school that is used by younger children.

“It’s going to be dusty and it’s going to be unpleasant,” principal Sandy Bridges said, adding that the building’s air conditioning may need to be kept running during school hours for the sake of air quality. The school also has several air filters that were installed after Sept. 11.

Kevin Fisher, president of P.S. 234’s PTA, said that the PTA and Bridges will need to be in contact with the developers to minimize impacts on the school.
“We probably have to make ourselves known to the developer to have some impact,” Fisher said, “Let’s assume there’s a good faith effort and maybe we can get some mitigation.”

Wils said that the community board will also work on mitigation steps, including the placement of staging areas for construction vehicles in the least disruptive spots and the reduction of work during key school testing periods, as was done last year during construction near P.S./I.S. 89.

Wils said she had hoped that the development issues would have been resolved months ago, so that the construction on 5C could have begun over the summer. Minskoff said that if the approval process for the Site 5B project goes smoothly, contractors may be able to dig the foundations during the summer of 2005 when school is out. Whether that will require the use of pile drivers is still to be determined, he said.

One P.S. 234 parent, who had strongly opposed the development, was more than a little unhappy with the outcome. “It’s an outrage,” said Catherine Weinstock, the mother of a first-grader. “Why is it that the infrastructure and needs of the community are an afterthought and the profits of the real estate developers come first?”

But Andy Koutsoudakis, owner of Gee Whiz restaurant at the corner of Greenwich and Warren Streets, said that the sites’ development was long awaited. When he signed his lease in 1988, he said, the real estate broker assured him that a 60-story building was about to go up in the parking lot across the street. Now that the buildings are finally coming, along with a community center, he sees something positive for everyone.

“If they do things for the community, for the kids, I think that is good,” he said. “And businesswise, no question about it, I think it’s going to be good, too.”