With Hefty Land Sale, Law School to Expand

By Carl Glassman
SEPT.1, 2006

Excavation began last month at West Broadway and Leonard Streets, formerly the site of a parking lot, in preparation for the construction of a sparkling, glass-encased complex for New York Law School. The new 200,000-square-foot building, with five stories above ground and four more below, is part of a $190 million expansion and renovation that will nearly double the size of the school’s Tribeca campus.

The new building, which will house a library, classrooms, an auditorium and more, is due to be completed in the fall of 2008, with the fully renovated campus ready for students in 2010.

While school officials are celebrating what they call a “truly transformative event” in their institution’s 115-year history, some neighborhood residents say the price is too high—many stories too high.

To enrich its endowment and help pay for the expansion, the school recently sold its Mendik Library property at Church and Leonard Streets, along with unused air rights from the site it is developing. Izak Senbahar and Simon Elias of the Alexico Management Group bought the Mendik Library parcel for $136.5 million.

Zoning for that lot allows a 306,000-square-foot building, which could rise about 40 stories. The city exempted the site when it rezoned much of Tribeca below North Moore Street in 1995, reducing the allowable size of buildings in the neighborhood.

City Councilman Alan Gerson told the Trib that, hoping to influence the developer, he will explore whether other projects in Alexico’s portfolio are getting help from the city—and need approval from the City Council.

“We’re going to look at possible legitimate points of leverage with respect to these developers ,including all city permits and benefits,” Gerson said.

“I expect that [Alexico] would want to be good neighbors and want their people moving into a welcoming situation,” he added.

Among Senbahar and Elias’ properties are the Richard Meier-designed tower at 165 Charles St., the Mark Hotel on East 77th Street and an apartment tower, designed by Kostas Kondylis, under construction on East 67th Street.

The developers are expected to meet with Community Board 1 this fall. “I made it clear to them,” said CB1 chairwoman Julie Menin, “that we will fight any project that is not contextual with the neighborhood.”

Alexico has not released its plans and did not return calls for comment.
The law school has been criticized by some for putting its endowment—now one of the 10 richest in the country—ahead of community interests. Its coffers have been filled, in part, with $135 million in insured bonds issued through the New York City Industrial Development Agency.

“The law school got a huge endowment from the public, the public is you and me,” said former CB1 chairwoman Madelyn Wils, who was asked by residents across the street from the site to advocate on their behalf. “It would seem appropriate for them to have taken a look at where they were.”

In a telephone interview, Richard Matasar, the school’s dean and president, vigorously defended the land sale. Any “predesigned restriction,” he said, would not give the school the resources it needs to compete with other schools and realize its goals. Income from the sale, and the city-insured bonds, were needed to secure further financing, he said.

“We have to be a financially secure institution. By selling the excess of what we don’t need, we’re able to provide enough assets that would give comfort to financial markets to lend to us.”

With the deal now sealed, can the developers be influenced by community pressure? Only with a local show of force, Menin and Wils asserted.

“If there is a large number of people who live close to that site and who feel it’s inappropriate,” said Wils, “hopefully we’ll find out soon.”