The BroadsheetDAILY – 4/7/22 – Taking the ‘Our’ Out of ‘Arcade’ – CB1 Opposes Deal to Hand Developer 4,000-Plus Square Feet of Public Space

The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Taking the ‘Our’ Out of ‘Arcade’

CB1 Opposes Deal to Hand Developer 4,000-Plus Square Feet of Public Space

The public space at 200 Water Street as it appeared in the 1980s, with billowing canopies, fountains and other artistic elements designed to enhance the public’s enjoyment of the outdoor plaza and arcade spaces. In exchange for these amenities, the builder was allowed to construct a taller, bulkier (and thus more valuable) tower than otherwise would have been legally permissible.

Community Board 1 (CB1) is reiterating its opposition to a plan that will allow a real estate developer to privatize more than 4,000 square feet of public space, in exchange for a promise to enliven an adjacent plaza.

At issue are the arcades—columned porticos that adorn the ground-floor facade of 200 Water Street—which the building owner hopes to enclose, thus creating additional retail space, which can be monetized. (The same owner plans to create three new market-rate rental apartments at the second floor level, and to use several hundred square feet of outdoor space on the plaza in front of 200 Water Street, for a cafe.)

The arcades at 200 Water Street (along with those in many nearby buildings) were created as a result of zoning regulations in the 1960s and 70s that were intended to encourage builders to add public amenities to their plans, in exchange for which they were permitted to erect taller, bulkier skyscrapers. In the case of 200 Water Street, the original “floor-area ratio” (FAR) permitted for the site was 10.0, meaning that the developer had the right to construct a tower that had a square footage ten times the size of the lot on which the structure was built. This would have allowed for a building with 334,000 square feet of interior space. But, in exchange for adding arcades and a plaza at the building’s entrance, the original developers were permitted to increase the size of 200 Water Street by 61 percent, to 541,000 square feet. The financial upside from this extra space—in terms of both increased rental income each year since the building opened in 1973 and increased overall value to the building—is almost impossible to calculate. But it can be reasonably estimated as many tens of millions of dollars, if not more than $100 million.

In exchange for this windfall, the building’s owners were supposed to provide the public amenities of arcade and plaza space at ground level. The original developers, the William Kaufman Organization, complied with these terms, hiring a team of artists to create a whimsical and widely admired space that contained fountains, street furniture, billowing canvas canopies, a neon-lit tunnel fabricated from corrugated steel, and the world’s largest digital clock. But the building was bought by Rockrose (its current owners) in 1996, and converted from offices into apartments. In the years that followed, the public amenities at the base of 200 Water Street were allowed to deteriorate, as was the case with many other buildings along Water Street that contained arcades and plazas. At 200 Water Street, the new owners were sued by the team of artists who had created the original amenities, an action that resulted in agreement to preserve their work through 2011.

The plaza and arcades at 200 Water Street as they appeared more recently, with the scaffolding that once held the canopies stripped bare, the erstwhile fountain (visible at lower right, behind black railing) long since turned off and filled with concrete, and much of the onetime lobby (at lower left) converted into a Duane Reade. Under a proposal approved by the City Planning Commission, the open colonnade shown in the foreground will be absorbed into new retail space, while several hundred square feet of the outdoor plaza will be turned over to seating for an outdoor cafe, and the three open-air rectangular spaces (center, on the second level above the street) will become new, market-rate apartments.

These moves came against the backdrop of deepening public skepticism about the fairness of deals made between the City and real-estate developers over so-called “privately owned public spaces” (POPs). A 2017 audit by the office of then-City Comptroller Scott Stringer found that of 51 such spaces located in Lower Manhattan, only eight were meeting legally required standards for public access, hours, or the availability of amenities such as artwork, lighting, furniture, plantings, drinking fountains, and bike racks. This represents a significant loss of value to the public, because these POPS were created in exchange for generous zoning variances that allowed the building owners construct towers that were taller and denser than otherwise would have been permissible.

But these concerns did not stop the administration of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio from sponsoring a proposal to allow the owners of buildings along Water Street to enclose a dozen-plus arcades in exchange for a promise to maintain and upgrade the adjacent open-air plazas that are found in front of many of the same buildings. At the time, critics derided this as, “a giveaway to developers” and condemned the fact that public space was being traded away in exchange for a public service (properly maintaining the plazas) that building owners were already supposed to provide.

In exchange for the planned modifications at 200 Water Street, the owners of the building stand to be compensated handsomely. Roger Byrom, then the chair of CB1’s Landmarks & Preservation Committee (and now a public member of the Board), noted in 2017 that, “it’s a disgrace that we are being forced to give up something for which the landlords are probably going to get a million dollars per year in perpetuity. Rental income from dwelling units alone will be $600,000 per year. Add to that increased profit from expanded retail and the open-air cafe they want to create on the plaza, plus the resulting increase in value to the building. It’s clear that this is not a fair trade.”

Alice Blank, the co-chair of CB1

Alice Blank, the co-chair of CB1, remarked at the time that, “there is nothing in the removal of this once-revered public space that benefits the public or provides ‘vibrancy to Water Street’—the claimed rationale for adopting the Water Street Zoning Text Amendment that opened the door for this action. The original deal remains: the community gets a plaza with six trees and six granite benches in exchange for 4,743 square feet of prime Downtown real estate.”

This issue came before CB1 again in March, because much of the work envisioned by the building owner (and authorized by the de Blasio administration) in 2017 has yet to be completed. But the passage of five years means that permission to make the changes must now be renewed. In a resolution enacted at its March meeting, CB1 notes that, “since approval of the original application in 2017, seating and art installations within the plaza on Fulton Street and Water Street have been removed, leaving the plaza largely empty,” and “there have been no changes to the plan since the original 2017 application reviewed by CB1.”

The measure adds that, “there is a critical need for public open space within Community District 1, which has been highlighted by the COVID pandemic. Large swaths of open space around the perimeter of Lower Manhattan will also be closed for extended periods during the construction of resiliency infrastructure, making inland open spaces more important than ever.”

The resolution concludes, “CB1 heartily reiterates its opposition to the Authorization allowing an arcade infill and plaza redesign… The design has been described as ‘bland’ and ‘uninviting,’ and does not reflect the importance of the site as a gateway to the Historic South Street Seaport, nor the history of the Fulton Street and Water Street plaza as a whimsical and celebrated public space,” and affirms that, “CB1 repeats that it has serious concerns about the Water Street zoning as a whole, particularly in terms of public benefit and equity.”

Matthew Fenton

The Lessor of Two Evils

Elected Officials Want Prospective Buyer of Affordable Housing Complex to Share Info

A coalition of elected officials are cautioning the prospective buyer of a Lower Manhattan affordable housing complex not to get any ideas about making the development any less affordable.

Nestled in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, Knickerbocker Village is a giant apartment complex in the Two Bridges neighborhood (bounded by Monroe, Market, Cherry, and Catherine Streets), which was built by a public-private partnership in the 1930s. Consisting of 12 buildings with a total of 1,590 apartments, it has been a bastion of affordability for nearly a century. As recently as 2019, a one-bedroom apartment rented there for $810 per month, and a three-bedroom units were priced at $1,250. To read more…

New in Business

ZAZA Restaurant & Diner

Greenwich Street has a long history in Lower Manhattan.

Laid out in 1761 as First Street, the lane was eventually lined with Federalist Mansions, until the rich moved further north. In the 1800s, it was the home of the first modern circus, called the New Amphitheatre. Around the turn of the 20th century, it was the home to Middle Eastern and European immigrants who created a strong community that included boarding houses, shops, a school, and a gymnasium.

All of that ended when the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was built in 1950 and the lower blocks of Greenwich Street were cleared for the tunnel entrance. The construction of the World Trade Center towers during the 1960s and 70s lopped off blocks in the north, and the disaster of 9/11 wreaked more destruction.

Fast forward to 2022.

With the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site and post-pandemic tourists returning to Lower Manhattan, life is once again returning to Greenwich Street.

The 911 Tribute Museum, Trinity Church’s new community center, George’s Luncheonette, Tajin Restaurant, Dragon Tea, Suspenders, BaoBao Café, the Hide-Away Spa and Lounge along with a few boutique hotels all contribute to a new vibe on the street. And a couple of weeks ago, ZAZA opened.

An American-style diner run by two generations of the Fathelbab family, ZAZA is bright and comfortable, with white marble decor, a friendly staff, and a comprehensive menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The owners, Diana and Adam, and their dad, Bob have been in the restaurant business for more than four decades, involved with establishments in Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn. Bob was a maître d’hôtel at the Plaza Hotel’s Edwardian Room and Oak Room for more than 20 years.

In addition to ZAZA, the family has another establishment in Coney Island Brooklyn, The Parkview Diner. ZAZA is open 7 days a week from 7am to 10pm serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Delivery and takeout are available. Save room for one of their homemade mouthwatering desserts!

104 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10006

646-864-0040 Open 7 Days 7AM – 10PM

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed as a troop and cargo transport aircraft. Its top speed is 367 mph with a range of 2,361 miles. They weight 75,000 lbs and cost between $12 million and $30 million to manufacture.

Dour Demographics

City Health Data Covering Entire Pandemic Show 150-Plus Local COVID Deaths, Among More Than 20,000 Cases

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 163 residents of Lower Manhattan have died from the disease, while more than 21,356 residents have been diagnosed according to an analysis of data from the City’s Department of Health. For the eight residential zip codes of Lower Manhattan, these metrics break down as follows: To read more…

Social Climbing

Alliance Launches Program to Help Local Small Businesses Connect with Customers Online

The Downtown Alliance, as part of its broader effort to help Lower Manhattan’s business community recover from the COVID-19 crisis, has launched Get Social, a free program teaches local firms how best to use social media to bolster their bottom line. The Alliance will pair ten businesses with social media consultants, each of whom has demonstrated skills and strategic insight on building an audience across a variety of platforms. The program also provides each participating business with a $1,500 grant to spend on advertising and content creation. To read more…

Local Heroes

Two Passionate Advocates for the Arts in Lower Manhattan to Be Fêted Friday

This Friday (April 8), the highly regarded Church Street School for Music & Art will honor two champions of the Lower Manhattan arts scene—the late Tom Goodkind and Dr. Lisa Ecklund-Flores—with a gala benefit at City Winery (25 11th Avenue, in the Hudson River Park, near 15th Street). To read more…

Floating an Idea

Port Authority Interprets Governor’s Order Littorally

Lower Manhattan residents could soon have a new option for accessing LaGuardia Airport, if planners at the Port Authority approve an option to launch ferry service between the Wall Street pier and the aerodrome in northern Queens.

The Port Authority has been compelled to take a fresh look at ways to access LaGuardia after Governor Kathy Hochul killed plans formulated by her predecessor, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, to build a new AirTrain. That proposal would have connected the airport to both the Long Island Rail Road and the subway’s 7 train—in both cases by moving passengers eastward for those transfers, when the vast majority of users would likely be headed to destinations west of the LaGuardia (such as Manhattan). This scheme was slated to cost several billion dollars.

THE WEEK’S CALENDAR

THURSDAY APRIL 7

6PM

9/11 Memorial & Museum

The events of 9/11 profoundly transformed how the United States engages with the rest of the world. Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton was at the forefront of that transformation, first as a senator from New York (2001-2009) and then as secretary of state (2009-2013) in the Obama administration. In this conversation with 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s Executive Vice President and Deputy Director for Museum Programs Clifford Chanin, Secretary Clinton reflects upon the attacks, the power and limitations of diplomacy in the ensuing two decades, and what the future might hold for American foreign policy. The program is at capacity and tickets are no longer available. For those unable to attend, the event will be broadcast live, with captioning, at 911memorial.org/watch.

6PM

Fulton Street

Today: Iron Buddha. Reservations are released at 10AM every Monday the week before class. Howard Hughes Corporation

6:30PM

Fraunces Tavern Museum

Military histories often focus on battles campaigns, overlooking the soldiers who fought them. Who were the red-coated soldiers who formed the ranks of the British army in the 1770s? In this talk, Don N. Hagist will investigate where British soldiers were from, what they did before joining the army, what motivated them to enlist, how they were trained, how they lived in America on campaign and in garrison, and what became of them after the war. Free.

7PM

Online film streaming

Wake in Fright (1971,Ted Kotcheff) tells the story of a British schoolteacher’s descent into personal demoralization at the hands of drunken, deranged derelicts while stranded in a small town in outback Australia. Registration required.

7PM

McNally Jackson

Audrey Schulman, author of Theory of Bastards, and Samantha Hunt, author of The Seas, will come together to discuss their new genre-bending works of literature as part of McNally Jackson and Europa Editions’ series of conversations on literature from around the globe, Here & Away.

8PM

Gibney

zavé martohardjono and collaborators present TERRITORY: The Island Remembers, an examination of colonial history through a parable of an island, which, divided by a border, grapples with reconciliation. TERRITORY: The Island Remembers will premiere as a week-long multimedia installation that will take over Gibney’s Studio Y. From April 7-9, the installation will be activated with three nights of rituals, performance, and audience-interactive actions. Prior to activations, visitors are invited to the installation at no cost on April 5-9 from 12-3pm EDT. With guided instruction, installation visitors can give offerings to altars within the space to acknowledge the land and prepare it for evening activations. $15-$20.

FRIDAY APRIL 8

11AM – 5PM

South Street Seaport Museum

On Saturdays and Sundays, visit the exhibitions and the ships of the South Street Seaport Museum for free. At 12 Fulton Street, see “South Street and the Rise of New York”” and “Millions: Migrants and Millionaires aboard the Great Liners, 1900-1914,”” and at Pier 16, explore the tall ship Wavertree and lightship Ambrose. Free,

7PM

Jeff Deutsch presents In Praise of Good Bookstores, in conversation with Sarah McNally

McNally Jackson 4 Fulton Street

Do we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? In this beautifully written book, Jeff Deutsch–the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world–pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions. He considers how qualities like space, time, abundance, and community find expression in a good bookstore. Along the way, he also predicts—perhaps audaciously—a future in which the bookstore not only endures, but realizes its highest aspirations.

For the Birds

A Guide to our Feathered Friends in Lower Manhattan

Gail Karlsson is a local writer and photographer who recently began focusing on New York City birds. She has put together a photo book called A Birds’ Guide to The Battery and New York Harbor. Most of the text is written from the birds’ point of view.

In 2017, she began going on morning bird walks in The Battery led by Gabriel Willow, a naturalist working with New York City Audubon. “One day he told me that not very many birders went to The Battery, and it would be good to document what we saw there. I didn’t know much about the different birds, but I did have a new telephoto lens, and Gabriel helped me identify ones I didn’t recognize. I was amazed at how many different types of birds we found there.I decided to put them together in a book – which turned into a much bigger project than I imagined. But a really fun one.”

‘Downtown Birds’ is now on display in the ground-floor window gallery at the former Western Union building (60 Hudson) located on the northwest corner of West Broadway and Thomas now through May 1

The book A Birds’ Guide to The Battery and New York Harbor is available on Amazon.com.

Morose Metric

Local Rates of Infection with BA.2 Version of COVID Among Highest in City

In a sharp reversal of previous trends, four Lower Manhattan neighborhoods are ranking among the top five anywhere in the City for rates of infection with the new BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron mutation of COVID-19.

In data released by the City’s Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday (covering the period from March 18 through March 24), southern Tribeca, two areas of the Financial District, and southern Battery Park City all placed among the five communities with the highest percentage positive test results for COVID infection. The four local zip codes with the highest level of positive test results were:

The Way We Live Now

Census Analysis Indicates Downtown Has Become a Lot Younger, Quite a Bit More Crowded, and Slightly More Diverse

The population of Lower Manhattan has grown by almost 20,000 residents in the decade preceding the 2020 Census, according to an analysis co-authored by James Wilson-Schutter, a Community Planning Fellow affiliated with the Fund for the City of New York, who is consulting with Community Board 1 (CB1), and Diana Switaj, CB1’s Director of Planning and Land Use.

Down in the Depths on the 50th Floor

Elevator Outages Have FiDi High-Rise Tenants Out on a Ledge

Months of chronic elevator problems at a historic skyscraper in the Financial District have left tenants at 20 Exchange Place hiking dozens of flights to and from their apartments each day. At a Monday rally called by elected officials to show support for the plight of residents in the building, City Council member Christopher Marte said, “this is the worst-case scenario for any resident. The first incident was in late October, almost six months ago.” Since then, he said, “there has been neglect from Con Edison and the management office. This is unacceptable. Enough is enough. Let’s get this fixed.”

Local Legacies Lionized

Three Downtown Preservation Projects Cited as Exemplars of Landmark Protection

Three of Lower Manhattan’s architectural masterpieces have been singled out for the prestigious Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, conferred each year by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, a highly regarded non-profit organization (itself based in Lower Manhattan, on Whitehall Street) that seeks to protect New York’s architecturally significant buildings. To read more…

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green

Broadway & Whitehall St

Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round

Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Compost Program: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.

The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan’s historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season’s freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.

212-349-1380 info@fultonstallmarket.org

Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.

Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.

SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.

Today in History

April 7

1810-1891 – Phineas T Barnum, US circus promoter and Mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut

“Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.”

529 – First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (“Body of Civil Law”) is issued by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor.It is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor.

1348 – Prague University, first university in central Europe, formed by Charles IV

1712 – Slave revolt in New York City.

The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 was an uprising by 23 enslaved Africans who killed nine whites and injured another six. Seventy blacks were arrested and twenty-one of whom were convicted and sentenced to death. Twenty were burned at the stake and one was executed on a breaking wheel. The Wheel was a device providing a painful slow death used in the Middle Ages into the 18th century and apparently here in early Manhattan This was a form of punishment no longer used on whites at the time. The severity of punishment was in reaction to white slaveowners’ fear of insurrection by slaves.

1827 – English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches

1891 – Nebraska introduces 8 hour work day

1923 – First brain tumor operation under local anesthetic performed (Beth Israel Hospital in NYC) by Dr K Winfield Ney

1953 – First west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight

1959 – Radar first bounced off the Sun, Stanford University, California

In 1947 the Army Signal Corps bounced a radar beam off the moon and received an echo. In 1958, MIT scientists sent a pulse to Venus and got a bounce back, a journey of 56 million miles,The Stanford transmitter sent out 30 second bursts of energy of 40,000 watts. They said less than 100 watts reached the sun. On the trip back the signal was estimated to be .00000000000000001 of a watt.

1966 – US recovers lost H-bomb from Mediterranean floor

1969 – Supreme Court strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material

1978 – Guttenberg bible sold for $2,000,000 in NYC

1988 – Russia announced it would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan

1990 – John Poindexter (Natl Sec Advisor) found guilty on Iran-Contra scandal

1994 – Vatican acknowledges Holocaust for first time

2003 – U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein’s regime falls two days later.

Births

1506 – Francis Xavier, saint/Jesuit missionary to India, Malaya, and Japan

1770 – William Wordsworth, England, poet laureate

1893 – Allen Dulles, Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 1969)

1897 – Walter Winchell, Harlem NYC, newscaster/columnist

1915 – Billie Holiday, [Eleanora Fagan], jazz singer (Lady Sings the Blues)

1920 – Ravi Shankar, Varanasi, British India, musician (d. 2012)

1931 – Daniel Ellsberg, whistleblower (Pentagon Papers)/patriot

1938 – Jerry Brown, ex-California governor

1939 – David Frost, TV host (That Was the Week That Was), (d. 2013)

1939 – Francis Ford Coppola, Detroit, director (Godfather, Apocalypse Now)

Jim Clark, two-time F1 World Champion and winner of the Indianapolis 500

Deaths

1663 – Francis Cooke, Mayflower pilgrim (b. c. 1583)

1891 – Phineas T Barnum, US circus promoter (B & Bailey), dies at 88

1968 – Jim Clark, two-time F1 World Champion and winner of the Indianapolis 500, dies in a racing accident during a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim, Germany at age 32. Born in 1936, his racing record attests to his skills – 2 World Championships in 73 races, 25 wins, 32 podiums, 33 pole positions, 28 fastest laps.

1972 – “Crazy” Joe Gallo, mobster, killed at his 43rd birthday party

1984 – Frank Church, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (b. 1924)

2009 – Dave Arneson, game designer, co-created Dungeons & Dragons (b. 1947)

2012 – Mike Wallace, American television news journalist (b. 1918)

Credit: Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com and Google searches

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