'I Still Can't Believe It.' Tribecans Meet Developers Over 940-Foot Tower Plan.

Benjamin Rubenstein of Stellar Management tells a meeting of Community Board 1's Land Use, Zoning and Economic Development Committee that a skinnier, taller tower means "more benefits at ground level, from casting a thinner shadow to keeping the distance between the buildings greater." Photo: Linda Buongermino for The Tribeca Trib

Developers of a newly proposed 940-foot residential tower in Tribeca’s Independence Plaza faced their project’s irate neighbors for the first time on Monday.

Appearing before Community Board 1’s Land Use, Zoning and Economic Development Committee and a roomful of local residents (plus more than 100 others viewing remotely), representatives for Independence Plaza owners Vornado Realty Trust and Stellar Management introduced their plans for the tower and two adjacent 8-story buildings on Greenwich Street, near Jay. There were no tower renderings to share and not much in the way of specifics about the massive project or its construction. (A spokesman later told the Trib it was too early to give the project’s estimated cost, or even whether it would be rentals or a co-op.) What they pitched were the claimed benefits of their plan: an improved streetscape along Greenwich Street; new housing for Lower Manhattan (including some as-yet-unknown number of “affordable” units); and, as one developer representative put it, a tower that would “enhance the skyline of Lower Manhattan.”

They also, to the mystification of many of the project’s critics, offered a legal rationale for why the skyscraper—to be the tallest building in the neighborhood—can skirt the city’s rigorous land use review process, known as ULURP.  That review would require key support by the district’s City Councilman, Christopher Marte, who says he opposes the project as proposed.

According to the developers, the southern parcel of Independence Plaza (south of Harrison Street) was not fully developed to its zoning maximum. So that additional square footage plus a “voluntary inclusionary zoning bonus” for providing some permanently affordable housing accounts for the square footage that the current zoning now allows. And because there is no zoning change request or new waivers needed, a ULURP is not required, the developers say.

(Marte, at a town hall with residents the week before, said he is “looking at every piece of zoning document that ever had to do with this lot, this tax lot, this zoning lot, to figure out strategies for my office to advocate” for a ULURP.  That decision rests with the Department of City Planning. Ezra Moser, a City Planning official at the community board meeting, declined to comment on the project.) 

But for some critics of the plan, the technical legality of the project is beside the point.

“To come to us with something of this scale after walking these streets, I still can’t quite believe it. It is completely out of context for this part of the neighborhood,” said CB1 member Tricia Joyce. 

“We do need affordable housing,” she added. “We do not need one more minute of luxury housing down here.”

According to the developers, the allowable size of their project, 1.11 million-square feet, would include a 136,000 square-foot bonus based on their agreement to preserve as permanently affordable some existing apartments in the area (likely elsewhere in Independence Plaza). Those below-market apartments would amount to about 9% of the new project’s square footage. Or the developers could get their bonus by earmarking as little as 5% of the square footage as permanently affordable if those apartments were created in the new construction. (These percentages could change, depending on the design, a spokesman for the developer later told the Trib.)

Like many developers in the city, Vornado and Stellar Management say they would create more affordable units if they had the financial incentive of the lapsed tax abatement program known as 421-a, or another like it. Viewed by many Democratic lawmakers as a tax giveaway to wealthy developers, the prospect of another 421-a-type program is seen by many as remote.

“Our goal is to build as much affordable housing as possible. However, we do need some version of the 421-a or a replica of that,” Stellar Management’s Adam Roman said. “And once we have a sense of what that is, then we’ll be able to speak to the details and we will be happy to provide a commitment.”

“No offense intended to the developers in the room, but 421-a sucks for permanent, long-term housing and stability in a community,” said CB1 chair Tammy Meltzer. “Because it wears off. It’s nothing more than a Band-Aid.” 

“When you go back to your drawing board, number one, think about what you can do to build truly affordable housing to the tune of 30, 40, 50 percent in the space,” said board member Justine Cuccia.

Of more immediate concern to those who live closest to the proposed tower site is the impact of construction.

“I think about living on an active construction site for a couple of years and listening to the sound pollution,” said a resident of 310 Greenwich Street, the Independence Plaza building that is next to the site. “And I’m sure this will not fare well for us living in a dust cloud,” he added. “It’s a mess. A construction site is a mess.”

Meredith James, the owner of one of the nine historic Federal-style townhouses, the individual landmarked buildings north of the site, said she fears for her home and others like it during pile driving. “Our houses are wood frame brick houses built in the 1820s,” she said. “They will not survive.”

Neither will the senior center, located “300 feet from where this pounding will take place,” said John Scott, a 310 Greenwich Street resident and leader of the center, located in the building’s community room. “Let me tell you, we cannot have a center with this noise.” 

A required environmental impact study will look at a wide range of potential problems created by the project and its construction. During that 18-month process, leading to a vote at the Department of City Planning, there will be a number of public meetings. “We will endeavor to get all the input we can, and try to incorporate as much feedback as possible,” said Stellar’s Adam Roman. 

Roman acknowledged that the developers had yet to study the impact of their project on the local infrastructure or environment. And he could not say how long the project would take to build.

“We can only assume that the impacts will be untenable and destroy this beautiful community,” said Stephanie Keleman, whose apartment is directly across Greenwich Street from the tower site. “We ask that you take the views of the community into account and rethink this plan, even before asking the City Planning Commission to approve it.”

Comments? Write to carlg@tribecatrib.com