The City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has approved the request by a real estate developer to build two futuristic-looking subway elevator sheds in the middle of a Lower Manhattan historic district, in exchange for which a new skyscraper planned for nearby will be allowed to build 70,000 extra square feet of interior space. This decision overrules a resolution by Community Board 1 (CB1), which urged the LPC to deny the developer’s proposal.
The new tower, which is expected to break ground shortly, will be located at 45 Broad Street, between Beaver Street and Exchange Place. The new subway entrances will be a block away, on Broad Street at Exchange Place.
As Bruce Ehrmann, co-chair of CB1’s Landmarks Committee, explained at the July 26 meeting of the board, the plan by 45 Broad Street developer (a three-way partnership between Madison Equities, Pizzarotti-IBC, and AMS Acquisitions), “involves putting in accessibility on a subway station.”
Mr. Ehrmann continued that CB1’s disapproval of this plan, “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 condominium tower slated to rise at 45 Broad Street, where the developer will be allowed to create an additional 70,000 square feet (which may be worth as much as $95 million) in exchange for building the two subway elevators nearby.
CB1 opposed the idea, Mr. Ehrmann explained, because, “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 streets themselves (and in particular, their irregular layout) are considered historic — and legally protected — relics.
The developers of 45 Broad proposed a pair of glass cube structures to house these elevators, both 13 feet tall and 10 feet long on each side. CB1 also noted that the proposed elevators would be one stop away from existing elevators that provide handicapped access to the same subway lines (the J and Z trains). CB1’s resolution on this application additionally observed 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.
Meeting at the end of July, the LPC voted unanimously (and with no public testimony) to approve the plan, under which two structures of 100 square feet each will win for the developer the right to create 70,000 of additional interior space within the new condominium tower, which is slated to rise to rise as high as 1,115 feet.
According to the Corcoran Report, which tracks sale prices for Manhattan properties, the average per-square-foot price for condominiums in the Financial District was $1,364 during the first quarter of 2016. This means that the additional square footage the developer will now be allowed to construct (in exchange for a total of 200 square feet of public amenity space) may be worth as much as $95 million. This figure (which was obtained by multiplying $1,364 by 70,000 square feet) assumes that condominium prices in Lower Manhattan hold steady through the projected 2018 opening of the tower at 45 Broad Street. If these prices continue to rise (as they have done relentlessly in recent years), the total value of the additional square footage may increase further, and top $100 million.
While there is no universally accepted formula for determining the cost of creating new subway elevators, at a public meeting last September, Andrew Inglesby, the assistant director of government and community relations at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (which oversees the subway system) estimated the cost of installing such an accommodation at $5 million. This appears to indicate that the developers of 45 Broad Street will realize a return on their investment of approximately nearly $10 dollars in profit for each dollar spent.
This is appalling. The elevators there will be difficult to adjust to, but the monstrosity of a building? ugh. What exactly has become the mission of the Landmarks Preservation Commission?