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More efforts to fight the tower for Greenwich & Jay
Community First Development Coalition
Community First Development Coalition, the group that has organized to fight the tower planned for Independence Plaza at Greenwich and Jay, presented the broad outlines of a plan last night, and showed some renderings that give more shape to the development.
You can see a full outline here on the plan, but in short, the owners of Independence Plaza, Vornado Realty Trust and Stellar Management, have floated the idea with the city to build a 940-foot tower on what is an underdeveloped site on their property — a tower that was never built. The plans would demolish the existing townhouses and retail at that location (shown in red in the drawing below), and replace them with new commercial buildings along the street wall as well as the residential tower (show in yellow).
Community First Development Coalition
Community First Development Coalition
The group’s primary concern is to fight the tower, but their more long-term issue is to rezone the area of Tribeca that allows for towers of any height — shown below in purple on the zoning map. That area is zoned as C6-4, which the city describes as areas “typically mapped within the city’s major business districts,” and with a floor area ratio among the highest in the city: 10.0 or 15.0. There are no height limits in these zones.
“This is not just about one tower,” said Richard Corman, a member of the organization’s board. “It’s the beginning of a change for the whole neighborhood. This is a precedent.”
The three options they are exploring now to fight the tower are litigation, policy changes and and expansion of the historic district — which in this case would just protect the row of Federal houses on Harrison. (Those are individual landmarks already, but they are outside the Tribeca West Historic District.)
And the sites they have identified for future huge development are:
- New York State Insurance Fund site on Church and Duane (I always thought this building should be landmarked! It is my favorite.)
- 40 Worth Street (the commercial building with Arcade Bakery, which is, as far as I know, not for sale)
- PS 234 site (they gave an example of a school on 57th Street that was built into a tower)
- BMCC site from Chambers to Harrison (there have been discussions in the past — in 2011 or so — of Related buying this site and moving the college to Midtown)
Community First Development Coalition
Board member Eric Anderson, who is working on the zoning issues, said the group is exploring more long-term zoning changes that would incorporate height limits, even if the area is rezoned for increased density. The idea, he said, is to avoid a Billionaires Row that Central Park South now has.
Councilman Chris Marte said the city has not heard from the applicant — Vornado and Stellar — since spring, when they first presented these plans. In the meantime, his office is trying to determine if indeed they can develop the site as of right, or if they have to go through the city’s land use process, which requires a vote from the City Council.
“We understand the need for housing and development, but the character of the neighborhood matters,” said Richard Corman. “We will be dealing with one tower after another and then it will be too late.”
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Setting aside the tower and rezoning, I just need to say: I am still really angry at Cuomo for ruining the entrance to the NYSIF building. That canopy with the stone relief sculpture had so much character. Now the sculpture is hidden behind glass and everything is so bland.
He truly was the worst. Let’s all remember that if/when he decides to run for mayor.
I could not agree more.
Your opinions about the former governor aside, I can’t imagine that he had anything whatsoever to do with the design choices for that building. If you have any evidence that he was even remotely aware of this I’d be interested to learn.
Hard for me to find it now, but if my memory serves, at the time Cuomo was filling the place up with NYS Police as part of his ongoing, petty feud with BdB, and this renovation was part of that.
This is a man who personally overrode his own state authority (the MTA) when it came to how to rebuild the Cararsie Tubes, among many other heavy-handed interventions in State construction projects during his term. The man loves to build; he always saw himself as a modern-day Moses (both not engineers, but enamored with big things). So yeah, I find the idea that he was unaware pretty laughable.
Cuomo or not, I agree the original 1950’s(?) look was so much better!
Malcolm, I agree 100% – there’s still so little respect for mid-century modern buildings, and we’ll regret that one day.
As with the recent fight against the tower in the Seaport (and basically every real estate battle in the history of New York City), this pushback is about views and money, not community. It takes about five minutes of Googling to figure that out.
Can’t blame the group for their efforts—I’d do the same in their situation—but let’s call a spade a spade here.
I recommend to those wanting to explore this issue further this piece from the NYT: https://tinyl.io/BqJ9
It discusses the current mayor’s “City of Yes” plan, and our neighborhood encapsulates one of the reasons it may be doomed to failure. (It’s also the case that Mayor Adams’ obscure ties to the real estate industry are very troubling, but that’s a whole other conversation.)
Its all about greed and money, Vornado and Stellar has always been about that. They don’t give a S- about affordable, just look at the fight IPN had to make years ago. They will destroy Greenwich Street businesses also with years of construction. Not to mention they really expect tenants who live at 310 Greenwich Street to be safe as this monster goes up. Health issues, etc. list goes on.
Noise pollution, air pollution, traffic, rat displacement as happens with any construction, loss of businesses, high winds in our neighborhood from the river, and years of all of this — also Vornado is holding onto empty spaces, like Sarabeth’s and not bringing other businesses in…
Traffic and rats are two things this redevelopment would very much help. First, they’re planning to remove the entrance to the parking garage next to Cocoon. That would significantly reduce traffic on Greenwich Street and make for a much safer pedestrian experience on the sidewalk. Second, having a main residential entrance and new storefronts where the townhouses are will prompt much better care of the sidewalk, which is currently always filthy and crawling with rats.
The redevelopment of that entire streetscape is a massive reason for the community to get behind this project.
person, do you live at 310 Greenwich Street or the townhomes? If not, you have no idea how this would impact the people who live there. Also, the businesses will suffer.
There is hardly any traffic out of that garage – no idea where this “significant” traffic reduction theory came from.
The “traffic” on Greenwich (when it exists, which is still rare) is and always has been from three things: the West Side Highway, the Holland Tunnel, and the Shearson Lehman/Traveller’s/Citibank building.
Add 60+ stories of luxury housing and for every IPN garage car you lose, you’re going to get 10 new Ubers and 3 Mercedes G-Wagons.
The ONLY solution to housing affordability in NYC and nationally is to build a lot more housing at all price points.
It’s economically rational to oppose additions to housing if you already own housing or benefit from rent regulation but spare us the moaning about construction disruptions and developer “greed” and just say “I got mine and now I don’t want things to change.”
Yes, construction can be disruptive. That doesn’t mean we should never build in a dense city (since there will always be neighboring lots) or only build when it disrupts somebody else. High-rises have been getting built in NYC for decades; we don’t need to re-litigate whether they are a hazard.