Community Board 1 (CB1) is taking a stand against attempts by two real estate developers to make a pair of Lower Manhattan properties more lucrative, under the guise of complying with provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Because both buildings are regulated by varying forms of landmarks protection, neither modification can be built without official approval. But the rationale of ADA compliance provides a wedge under which such approval becomes harder to withhold.
The first of these properties is 45 Broad Street, between Beaver Street and Exchange Place. While this location is currently an empty lot, a development partnership consisting of three firms (Madison Equities, Pizzarotti-IBC, and AMS Acquisitions) is planning to erect a condominium tower at the site, which is slated to rise as high as 1,115 feet.
![Bruce Ehrmann, co-chair of CB1's Landmarks Committee: "The developer just asked, 'well, we want 70,000 square feet of extra [space in the building], so what we can do that might let you consider that? An elevator on Broad Street at Exchange Place?'"](https://i0.wp.com/www.ebroadsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/bruceEhrmann.jpg?resize=300%2C256&ssl=1)
This plan, “involves putting in accessibility on a subway station,” at the corner of Broad Street and Exchange Place, explained Bruce Ehrmann, co-chair of CB1’s Landmarks Committee at the Tuesday’s meeting of the board. “It might sound cruel on the face of it, but really, the developer just asked, ‘well, we want 70,000 square feet of extra” space in the building, “so what we can do that might let you consider that?” Mr. Ehrmann continued that the developers came up with their own answer: “put in an elevator on Broad Street at Exchange Place.”
A rendering of the proposed “super-tall” condominium tower (slated to rise as high as 1,115 feet) that developers are planning for the lot at 45 Broad Street, which could increase in size by 70,000 square feet if they are permitted to build the subway elevator structure proposed for Broad Street and Exchange Place.
Weighing against this proposal, Mr. Ehrmann explained, is the fact, “that this is the only landmark-designated street grid itself in New York City, which has already been very botched by probably necessary post-9/11 security measures, many of which don’t work anymore, such as bollards that don’t rise and fall.” Mr. Ehrmann was referring to the Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York, a triangle formed roughly by Broadway, Wall Street, and Pearl Street, in which the the streets themselves (and in particular, their irregular layout) are considered historic — and legally protected — relics.
The developers of 45 Broad are proposing a pair of glass cube structures to house these elevators, both 13 feet tall and 10 feet long on each side. CB1 also considered that the proposed elevators would be located a short distance from existing elevators that provide handicapped access to the same subway lines (the J and Z trains). CB1’s resolution on this application additionally notes that “any 13 foot tall structures anywhere along Broad Street would destroy the historic view corridors” and that the structures would leave only a narrow sidewalk passage, approximately ten feet wide, between the glass cubes and the adjacent buildings.
A rendering of the proposed handicapped access ramp at 90 Hudson Street, which will also contain staircases for six new retail units.
The second property in question is 90 Hudson Street, near the corner of Leonard Street. At this site, Mr. Ehrmann explained, the owner proposed, “what is supposedly a handicapped access ramp that would take up the entire block, and most of that ramp is stairs for new storefronts they want to add.”
This ramp would be 116 feet long, and six feet wide. In addition to providing handicapped access, it would create a series of staircases (which are of no use to the disabled), leading to six new retail units on the building’s first floor.
Because the corner of Broad Street and Exchange Place falls within the Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York boundaries, and because 90 West Street sits inside the Tribeca Historic District, neither the subway elevator structures nor the proposed ramp can be built “as of right.” Both require approval from the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). The same law also calls for the local community board to issue an advisory opinion to the LPC, before the latter body makes a determination.
At Tuesday’s CB1 meeting, separate resolutions urging to LPC to reject both applications passed unanimously. Whether the LPC will be guided by CB1’s judgement remains to be seen.
Attempts to use the ADA compliance to wrest official approval for structural changes to buildings that would otherwise be legally difficult or impossible to obtain are nothing new in Lower Manhattan. For more than a year, residents of 20 Pine Street have fought with Federal Express, which has a shipping center in the base of their building. In 2015, the company applied for permission to install a ramp that would allow delivery personnel to access the facility directly from the street. This permission was initially declined by the City’s Department of Buildings (DOB), on the basis that it would block most of the sidewalk on the Nassau Street side of the building. Federal Express then changed its stated reason for needing the ramp from business convenience to ADA compliance. Invoking the issue of handicapped access caused the DOB to reconsider its previous decision, and expedite approval, even though the Federal Express facility at 20 Pine is not open to the public and another ramp, within 20 Pine Street, already provided access to the Federal Express space.
The ramp that Federal Express wanted was built, over the objections of 20 Pine residents, and is now roped off to bar use by handicapped people, or anybody other than Federal Express personnel. It is also adorned by a sign directing handicapped people to use the other ramp, inside the building.