BroadsheetDAILY May 9 2019

BPCA Awards Underwater Contract to Firm That Promises Peace and Quiet

A barge moored in South Cove, conducting pile remediation work on the underwater columns that support the Esplanade.

The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) is continuing a decade-long project to shore up the underwater columns that support the Esplanade, but has found a way to do it without keeping residents up at night.

At the April 23 meeting of the BPCA’s board, Gwen Dawson, the Authority’s vice president of real property, explained, “the esplanade of Battery Park City rests on a relieving platform which is supported by 3100 total concrete piles. We initiated a program in 2007 to perform certain remediation steps on these piles, to wrap them in fiberglass, to make sure that their lives could be extended — we are told up to an additional 30 to 50 years.”

The Authority is now beginning the sixth phase of this project, which will focus on three segments of the Esplanade: near South Cove, adjacent to the ferry terminal, and along the community’s northern edge, behind Stuyvesant High School. The current phase will repair a total of 561 piles, across these three areas. This work is done from barges that are parked alongside the Esplanade for several months, and from which divers descend into the Hudson to perform the underwater construction work.

As the BPCA board reviewed several bids for this contract, Ms. Dawson added that one of these, from Walker Diving Underwater Construction, was the staff’s recommendation, in part because, “the last phase of work that we did generated a fair number of noise complaints, because of the way that the barges were secured. The barges have to stay put once they’re there, until they finish the work in that area. The way that they were anchored involves spuds, which are metal rods in a metal sleeve, that allow the barges to float up and down with the tides. As that happened, it generates a lot of clanking, which disturbs people when they’re trying to sleep at night.”

As a result, when putting the contract for the 2019 phase of the project out to bid, “we’ve specifically asked the contractors to give us some proposals for how that noise might be controlled,” Ms. Dawson noted. “Walker demonstrated a better solution for that problem, which we think will be a great improvement for the noise issues.” The firm’s approach involves anchoring their barges to the river bottom, rather than allowing the vessels rise and fall on vertical spuds.

Ms. Dawson added that, “we also felt that Walker seemed a little more comfortable with the schedule of getting all of this work done in a proper sequence, between the start time and the end time that is allowed by the State regulations.” (Albany’s environmental rules require that work such as the BPCA’s pile remediation project be undertaken only between May and October.)

Also counting in Walker’s favor, noted Anthony Peterson, the BPCA’s director of diversity programs, is that the firm is designated by the State as a service-disabled veteran-owned business (SDVOB) vendor. Under a 2014 law, such companies are required to be awarded six percent of State contracts. Noting that Walker had served as a subcontractor on previous phases of the Authority’s pile remediation project, Mr. Peterson explained that, “as an SDVOB, they recently had an influx, because of the six percent goal. Now everyone’s using them, so they’re large enough to prime the project themselves. But they’ve been on the project since the beginning.”

On the basis of these recommendations, the Authority’s board voted to award the 2019 contract for pile remediation to Walker, for a fee of $9.8 million, which comes to approximately $17,000 for each of the underwater pilings they will repair.

The Taste of Tribeca in 2006

Saturday (May 18) will mark the 25th anniversary of Taste of Tribeca, the street food fair that raises money for two beloved local public schools: P.S. 234 and P.S. 150.

Come to Duane Street (between Greenwich and Hudson Streets), from 11:30 am to 3:00 pm, for gastronomic wonders from 60 of Tribeca’s top chefs and restaurants — including seven that have been participating since 1994: Bouley, Bubby’s Tribeca, Duane Park Patisserie, Gigino Trattoria, The Odeon, Tribeca Grill, and Walker’s.

Tickets, priced at $45 in advance and $55 on the day of the event, get you six tastes and two pours on the Beer & Cider Tour, and are on sale now at www.tasteoftribeca.com.

Teach a Kid to Fish…

Battery Park City Parks will celebrate life in the Hudson Estuary with their annual Go Fish! festival, on Saturday, May 11, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, in Wagner Park.

Experienced anglers will guide participants through catch-and-release fishing, while also imparting lessons about life in the Hudson River.

The day also features an art project and a nature walk, plus the kindie rock and reggae tunes of Brooklyn-based Father Goose.

Admission is free, and open to all.

On May 22, the Battery Park City Seniors group will host a memorial service for Arlene Kalfus, who died tragically on April 4, when she was struck by a bus on South End Avenue.

Ms. Kalfus, a long-time resident of Gateway Plaza, was a longtime contributor to Battery Park City Seniors, whose loss is acutely felt, both because of her many volunteer activities and her dry sense of humor.

The service will be held in the Battery Park City Authority’s community room, located within 200 Rector Place.

(Please use the entrance on the west side of the building, facing West Thames Park.)

Anyone planning to attend is asked to R.S.V.P. to Philomena Pinto at JPinto8925@aol.com.

Amazon Opens High-Tech Retail Outlet in Brookfield Place, But Will Accept Low-Tech Form of Payment

	Retail, Reimagined: The Amazon Go store in Brookfield Place

New York politicians still smarting over Amazon’s decision to cancel plans for a corporate headquarters in Long Island City can console themselves that the online retail giant has at least opened a 1,300-square-foot bricks-and-mortar store in Lower Manhattan.

On Tuesday, Amazon debuted the first East Coast location of its Go chain, on the upper level of Battery Park City’s Brookfield Place. The experimental retail brand amounts to a revolutionary reimagining of the traditional storefront, by eliminating cash, cashiers, and even automated checkout kiosks.

Lower Manhattan Experiences Chain Reaction as Two Esteemed (and Non-Corporate) Booksellers Plan Local Outposts

A rendering of the South Street Seaport location planned  for McNally Jackson books.

Local connoisseurs of independent bookstores have reason to celebrate: Two highly regarded operators will be coming to Lower Manhattan soon. The first is McNally Jackson, which has confirmed that its much-delayed plan to open in the South Street Seaport will finally be realized this year.

Also coming to Downtown is the much-admired Shakespeare & Companyindependent bookstore, which already has locations on the Upper East and Upper West sides.

City Moves Ahead with Traffic Signal for Rector Place and South End Avenue, Ten Months After Approval

May 9

Owner of Tribeca Kiosk Is Told Twice That Once Is Just about Enough

Chin, Nadler Announce Push to Ease Lower Manhattan Traffic By Reconfiguring Verrazzano Toll

Congressman Jerry Nadler  and City Council member Margaret Chin  look on as MTA chief Patrick Foye describes a plan to reinstitute two-way tolling on the Verrazzano Bridge.

A gaggle of elected and appointed officials gathered on Staten Island to announce their support for changing a decades-old tolling policy on the Verrazzano Bridge, which may have a significant benefit for traffic congestion in Lower Manhattan.

U.S. Congressman Jerry Nadler and City Council member Margaret Chin (both of whom represent Lower Manhattan) were joined by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, and Patrick Foye, chairman and chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the agency that oversees the bridge, to trumpet the virtues of restoring two-way tolls on the span, which connects Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Governors Island Overseer Departs as Community Leaders Grapple with Future Development Prospects

	A view of Governors Island from the observatory atop One World Trade Center

Michael Samuelian, the chief of the Trust for Governors Island, the non-profit organization that administers the 172-acre park situated some 800 yards off the tip of Lower Manhattan, will be stepping down in June. His tenure, which began in 2016, will end shortly after the Island reopens for the season, on May 1.

Mr. Samuelian presided over a renaissance on Governors Island, with each year during his term setting new records for attendance, with expanded hours and a longer season.

In the season that begins next week, Governors Island will also launch a new ferry, Governors I. The 132 foot-long, 40 foot-wide vessel was built specifically to serve the Island, and can carry up to 400 passengers per trip, which will increase capacity by 1,000 visitors per hour.

Long Overlooked Pier Becomes ‘Porch’ Overlooking East River Waterfront

	Eco-Park on the East River

Downtown’s list of great public spaces has increased by one, with the opening on April 19 of a new “Eco-Park” at Pier 35, on the East River shoreline, in the Two Bridges neighborhood. The 28,000-square-foot facility includes lawns, dunes, and a sloped concrete “urban beach,” designed to replicate the natural breeding habitat of mussels. To read more...

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New Renderings for Planned Tower at 80 South Street Show Building Taller Than One World Trade Center

	Community leaders fear that the number of apartments contained in a building this large could overwhelm local infrastructure

The on-again/off-again skyscraper proposed for 80 South Street, in the Seaport District may be on again.

Contract Alleges That Developer Cut Corners on Foundation, Resulting in Dangerous Tilt

	One Seaport

A 670-foot residential building now under construction in the South Street Seaport neighborhood is leaning precipitously north and east, according to a lawsuit filed against the developer by one of its former contractors. The tower, known as One Seaport, is located at 161 Maiden Lane (on the corner of South Street) and is 58 stories tall.

In a story first reported by the Commercial Observer, a suit filed in March with the New York State Supreme Court by building contractor Pizzarottialleges that the 161 Maiden Lane, “is leaning, as a rigid body, outside of its vertical control,” and, “is now exhibiting a bowing or curve in its verticality that is due entirely to said leaning.” The suit also claims that, “the building… has settled and moved to such a degree that the structure is encroaching on a neighboring property line.”

Local Resident Oversaw Move of Holocaust Freight Car to Lower Manhattan

In nearly 40 years of involvement in logistics, almost all of it in the field of fine art transportation, participating in this move was professionally the most significant, and personally the most emotional, project I have ever undertaken.

The rail car is on loan from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland, to an exhibition services company in Spain, which is co-sponsoring the new exhibition, “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away,” with the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Lower Manhattan Site of First Synagogue in North America Honored by Street Co-Naming

City Council member Margaret Chin and community leaders gathered in the Financial Districton Monday afternoon to commemorate the long-overlooked site of America’s first Jewish temple, the Mill Street Synagogue, located on what is now South William Street. The thoroughfare was co-named “Mill Street Synagogue/Seixas Way,” in a nod to the temple’s first cleric, who was also a patriot leader during the American Revolution.

To read more…

New York’s Version of Big Ben

Will Be Gutted, Converted to Penthouse

	The clock tower at  346 Broadway

At the March 26 meeting of Community Board 1, Lynn Ellsworth, chair of the Tribeca Trust, relayed somber news. “Our lawsuit against Landmarks Preservation Commission has lost on appeal,” she explained. “It came down to procedures used by Commission in their judgment calls. The Court basically told us that we have go to the legislature, because they don’t want to deal with it, it’s too messy.”

The structure in question is the 1898 Renaissance Revival building located at Broadway and Leonard Streets and designed by McKim, Mead, and White as the headquarters for the New York Life Insurance Company.

	John Watts     Why isn’t he smiling?