Promises, Promises…

Local Leaders Respond to Proposal Seeking Transfer of Air Rights Worth Millions: ‘What’s In It for the Community?’

Community Board 1 (CB1) is taking a dim view of a proposal that would transfer unused development rights from a landmarked building in Tribeca to a vacant lot across Broadway, enabling a building planned for that site potentially to rise by an additional seven stories.

At issue is the James White Building (also known as the Cast Iron House), a six-story Italianate structure at 361 Broadway on the corner of Franklin Street dating from 1882. The owners, who converted the former office structure to residential use in 2021, adding a two-story penthouse in the process, propose to sell 25,000 square feet of “air rights” to a developer planning a new structure on the east side of Broadway. The value of these development rights – which would not have been legally possible until the recent enactment of the Adams administration’s City of Yes legislation package – is likely in excess of $10 million. In exchange for approval of their plan, the owners of 361 Broadway are promising to allocate part of this windfall to a maintenance fund for the historic structure.

Noting that approval for development rights transfers traditionally involves some form of benefit to the surrounding neighborhood, Jason Friedman, the chair of CB1’s Landmarks & Preservation Committee, said at the Board’s September 30 monthly meeting, “it’s hard for me to understand the giveback to the community for this.”

“What bothered us was that we didn’t see any benefit for the community,” echoed committee member Susan Cole.

Committee member Jared Sheer invoked recent history that has made CB1 skeptical about promises by developers of benefits to the community. He noted, “we need to make sure there’s a mechanism to ensure that the maintenance actually occurs. Because as we saw with Barnett Newman Triangle, for example, that developer made all those commitments and there’s no teeth to enforce any of that.”

This was a reference to a forlorn vest-pocket park in Tribeca, at the convergence of Church Street, Sixth Avenue, and White Street. Barnett Newman Triangle (named for the renowned abstract expressionist painter who lived nearby, on White Street) was originally supposed to be brought to life under the terms of a 2014 deal with real estate developer DDG, when that firm received valuable zoning variances for a new building it was erecting at nearby 100 Franklin Street, on the site of a former parking lot. Five years later (in 2019), when CB1 inquired about the status of this agreement, the City’s Department of Transportation said there was no paperwork documenting it anywhere in their files. In the years since, DDG has refused to reply to inquiries from CB1.

At the conclusion of this discussion, CB1 enacted a resolution noting, “there is nothing being given back to the community in return for… the Transfer of Development Rights,” and “the transfer of air rights to increase the bulk of an already bulky building across the street does not provide in any way, shape, or form an equal return on investment for the community at large.”

The measure recommends that the proposal be approved only if accompanied by credible assurances that “such maintenance plan is guaranteed to be funded by either the granting or receiving entity, through a financial vehicle such as an escrow account that is more enforceable than the standard revocable consent.”