The BroadsheetDAILY News of Lower Manhattan 9/24/19

As a partner you will benefit from extremely positive profits and gross markups. In addition, we have a superior supply network leaving us to sell and design and turn

Contact Barry Silverberg at 212-766-9670 or bsilverberg@donorwall.com

Onetime Non-Profit Nursing Facility Sold to Anonymous Buyer for Five Times Original Price

Rivington House

If there is an Exhibit A in the case that the fevered speculation in Lower Manhattan real estate incubates perverse incentives it must be Rivington House — the onetime HIV/AIDS care facility that was bought by a real estate developer in 2014 for $28 million (a fraction of its market value), with the proviso that the building would continue to be dedicated to its decades-long use as a nursing home.

After purchasing the block-long, 150,000-square-foot structure (located at 45 Rivington Street, near the Williamsburg Bridge), the developer, the Allure Group, paid the City an additional $16 million to remove the deed restriction that limited the property to its legacy use of non-profit, residential healthcare.

With the building thus unencumbered, Allure was able to sell Rivington House to another developer, two years later, for $116 million — a profit of $72 million. The new owners, a partnership led by the Slate Group, quickly announced plans to shutter the HIV/AIDS facility and convert the building into more than 100 luxury condominiums.

Scott Stringer

After a major scandal erupted over what was widely perceived as a giveaway of a vitally needed (and very valuable) public asset, multiple officials in the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed to have been unaware that the new owners could reap such a windfall or modify the building’s use. This claim was called into question when investigators discovered that James Capalino, a fund-raiser for Mr. de Blasio’s campaigns, who had begun a lucrative career as a lobbyist, represented several sides in the Rivington transactions, and had worked behind the scenes to get the deed restriction lifted. City Comptroller Scott Stringer described this web of deal-making as, “highway robbery.”

That saga continued last week, when the Slate Group and its partners acknowledged that they had sold Rivington House, this time for $159 million — a price more than five times higher than the original purchase, five years ago. In this transaction, the new owners have deliberately sought to conceal their identities, cloaking themselves behind their attorneys and a specially-created holding company.

	Margaret Chin

City Council member Margaret Chin, who has been a vociferous critic of the sale and change in use at Rivington House, said, “years after the problematic sale shook the Lower East Side community, our neighbors have been fighting tooth and nail to make sure that the critical health services that Rivington House has provided for 20 years for our most vulnerable community members continue.” This struggle yielded a partial victory last December when the Mount Sinai Health System announced that it had leased most of the building for the next 30 years, and was planning to create a $140-million behavioral health facility there.

“It is deeply upsetting that over and over again the real estate industry has used Rivington House as a profit-making venture, continuously playing hot potato with this property, and lining their own pockets at the expense of the community — while constantly keeping everyone in the dark,” Ms. Chin continued.

“My office has been leading an effort to return much-needed nursing home beds to the community,” she added. “We need transparency now, and I demand the new owner to publicly come forward immediately and make a case to residents for how it will be a community partner.”

BPCA Composting Tours

Last year the Battery Park City Authority composted more than 20,000 lbs. of food and waste, and is on-pace to compost over 35,000 lbs. in 2019.

Join us for a tour of BPCA’s composting program and see how this waste stream is diverted from the landfill.

Please register by email info@bpca.ny.gov or by calling 212-267-9700.

75 Battery Place.

Breaking It Down

Composting Catches on in Battery Park City

Jake Jacevicius and Joshua DeVoto of BPCA parks operations dump out a binful of fruit and vegetable scraps inside the garage at 75 Battery Place, where the neighborhood’s composting process takes place.

You’re probably heard of the farm-to-table movement. Thanks to the Battery Park City Authority’s compost initiative, there’s a burgeoning table-to-earth movement in this Lower Manhattan community.

Services will be in English (and Hebrew) blended with contemporary messages throughout the service and simultaneously

have an exciting children’s service.

* Fun Kids Program

* Lively, Meaningful and Enjoyable Services

* Warm and welcoming environment

* Rosh Hashanah Dinner at the Wall St Grill – FiDi’s newest Kosher Steakhouse

The Battery Park City Authority and Community Board 1 will co-host a pair of upcoming meetings on various aspects of resiliency measures being planned for the neighborhood.

On Thursday, September 26, the focus will be on the ball fields, where temporary measures to protect the facility (and thus safeguard the fall season for local youth recreation leagues) are already in place. This session will be held in the community space at Six River Terrace, next to le pain Quotidien and across from the Irish Hunger Memorial, and will start at 6:00 pm.

On Tuesday, October 1, the topic will be the measures now being planned for the northern border of the community, behind Stuyvesant High School, and possibly extending into Tribeca. This session will take place at the community room within 200 Rector Place, and will start at 6:30 pm. Admission to both meetings is free of charge, and no R.S.V.P. is needed.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades  ~  Respectable Employment ~ Lost & Found

212-912-1106   editor@ebroadsheet.com

PERSONAL ASSISTANT

CHINESE AIDE/CAREGIVER FOR ELDERLY

Cantonese/Mandarin-speaking and Excellent Cook for Battery Park City.

SEEKING FREE-LANCE PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONAL OR SMALL PR FIRM

Work with well-reviewed author of five E-books, developing and implementing outreach strategies.

HOUSEKEEPING/NANNY/BABYSITTER

Available starting September for PT/FT.

ELDERCARE

Available for PT/FT elder care.  Experienced. References Angella

 347-423-5169 angella.haye1@gmail.com

DITCH THE DIETS & LOSE WEIGHT FOR GOOD

Call Janine to find out how with hypnosis.

EXPERIENCED ELDER CARE

Able to prepare nutritious meals and light housekeeping

NOTARY PUBLIC IN BPC

$2 per notarized signature  Text Paula at 917-836-8802

CLEANING SERVICES

Dishes, windows, floors, laundry, bathrooms.

IT AND SECURITY SUPPORT

Experienced IT technician.  Expertise in 1-on-1 tutoring for all ages.Computer upgrading & troubleshooting.  Knowledgeable in all software programs.

ELDER COMPANION

Experienced with BPC residents. Available nights, days, and weekends. Will cook, clean and administer medicine on time. Speaks French and English. Can start immediately. Please call or text 929-600-4520.

OLD WATCHES SOUGHT, PREFER NON-WORKING

Mechanical pocket and wristwatches sought and sometimes repaired

Lower Manhattan Students Leave School to March in The Climate Strike

	Students from P.S./I.S. 276 left their classrooms in March, 2018, to protest gun violence. Today, they are expected to do the same, but this time the focus will be on climate change.

Influential Planning Group Wants Two-Way Congestion Pricing

For Lower Manhattan residents who already feel aggrieved by the State’s pending congestion pricing plan (which will charge people who live here to drive to their homes), the Regional Plan Association (RPA) has a suggestion for how to make it worse: levy a toll upon drivers both as they enter and as they leave the zone south of 60th Street.

A Guardian of Local Children Falls

Esteemed Lower Manhattan School Safety Officer Victim of Murder-Suicide

	Naire McCormick

A protector and defender of Lower Manhattan school children is gone. Naire McCormick, who has served as the uniformed School Safety Agent at Millennium High School in the Financial District for the past four years, died on Sunday evening, the victim of an apparent murder-suicide in Brooklyn.

Study Predicts 300 Fewer Vehicles Per Day on Local Streets If Verrazzano Toll Changes

	The Verrazzano Bridge is located more than eight miles from Lower Manhattan, but a new study indicates that tolling patterns there have a significant impact on traffic congestion here.

A new analysis commissioned by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority  has quantified the possible impact on Lower Manhattan traffic of a proposal being spearheaded by Congressman Jerry Nadler and City Council member Margaret Chin to reform tolling policy on that span, which connects Brooklyn with Staten Island.

Although Verrazzano is eight miles away from Lower Manhattan, its toll regimen is a significant contributor to Downtown traffic patterns.

	In an instant, both wagon and horse were vaporized, and the closest automobile was tossed twenty feel in the air. Incredibly, the iconic bronze of George Washington surveys the devastation from the steps of the Sub-Treasury without so much as a scratch.

As the noon hour approached on a fall Thursday morning in 1920, a horse-drawn wagon slowly made its way west down Wall Street toward “the Corner,” the high-powered intersection of Wall and Broad. Its driver came to a gentle stop in front of the Assay Office, where stockpiles of gold and silver were stored and tested for purity. But theft was not his motive.

September 16 – 29, 2019

As the Sun’s arc shortens in the skies of Earth’s northern hemisphere, we approach equal day and night.    To read more…

Many ships pass Lower Manhattan on their way to and from the Midtown Passenger Ship Terminal.  Others may be seen on their way to or from piers in Brooklyn and Bayonne.  Stated times, when appropriate, are for passing the Colgate clock in Jersey City, New Jersey, and are based on sighting histories, published schedules and intuition. They are also subject to tides, fog, winds, freak waves, hurricanes and the whims of upper management.

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Many ships pass Lower Manhattan on their way to and from the Midtown Passenger Ship Terminal.  Others may be seen on their way to or from piers in Brooklyn and Bayonne.  Stated times, when appropriate, are for passing the Colgate clock in Jersey City, New Jersey, and are based on sighting histories, published schedules and intuition. They are also subject to tides, fog, winds, freak waves, hurricanes and the whims of upper management.

City Transportation Study Finds That Lower Manhattan Bus Service Is Among Most Sluggish in Five Boroughs

	Bus speeds in Lower Manhattan average below eight miles per hour

The annual New York City Mobility Report, produced by the City’s Department of Transportation, contains two data points that will come as no surprise residents of Lower Manhattan. The first of these is that the median speed for Downtown bus service ranks among the slowest of any community in the five boroughs. And the second is that this creeping pace is, if anything, getting creepier. To read more…

Residents and Local Leaders Recall 18 Septembers Ago

Firemen at Liberty Street and South End Avenue  on September 11, 2001.  photo: Robert Simko

A panel of residents and local leaders participated in a panel discussion at the South Street Seaport, hosted by the Howard Hughes Corporation and moderated by CNBC’s Contessa Brewer, who lives in Lower Manhattan.