The BroadsheetDAILY ~ Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper ~ 7/15/21 ~ CB1 Endorses Plan to Limit Hotel Development

The Broadsheet

Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

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Hostile to Hostels

CB1 Endorses Plan to Limit Hotel Development

The Moxy NYC Downtown hotel, at 143 Fulton Street, which opened in 2018 and recently went into foreclosure.

Community Board 1 (CB1) is getting behind a proposal by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to limit future hotel development. Although this proposal, if adopted, would affect communities throughout the five boroughs, it would have a particularly strong impact in Lower Manhattan, where hotel development has been rampant in recent years.

From 2007 to 2020, the City as a whole added more than 54,000 new hotel rooms — an increase 73 percent increase over the previously existing inventory. A disproportionate share of this growth took place in the square mile below Chambers Street.

In the years leading up to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, visitors wishing to stay in Lower Manhattan had essentially three choices: the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel (destroyed when the Twin Towers collapsed), the Marriott World Financial Center Hotel (now known as the Marriott Downtown, on West Street), and the Millennium Hilton Downtown Hotel (on Church Street, opposite the World Trade Center complex).

Today, there are 36 hotels operating in this same area, offering more than 7,900 rooms, according to the Downtown Alliance’s Lower Manhattan Real Estate Market Report for the first quarter of this year. The same analysis indicates that another 12 hotels, containing an additional 1,949 rooms, are currently under construction or in the planning stages.

In a resolution enacted at its May 25 meeting, CB1 noted that, “the rapid growth of new hotels across the city has led to calls from communities and elected officials to better regulate the development hotels to limit land use conflicts and slow the pace of development in some locations.”

The de Blasio administration’s Citywide Hotel Text Amendment would apply to three Downtown “special purpose districts” — zoning catchments created to achieve specific planning and urban design objectives in defined areas with unique characteristics. These are the Tribeca, Battery Park City, and Lower Manhattan zones, which, in the aggregate, cover the entirety of CB1.

The CB1 resolution also observed that, “as a result of this proposed text amendment, any new hotel within Community District 1 would require a Special Permit,” before urging ratification of the proposal.

This initiative comes in the wake of massive carnage in Lower Manhattan’s hotel sector. The developers of the Moxy NYC Downtown, located at 143 Fulton Street, recently surrendered possession of the property to their mortgage lenders. In April, creditors also began foreclosure proceedings against the 492-room Holiday Inn at 99 Washington Street and the 79-room Assemblage, at 17 John Street. These developments came on the heels of developer Leonard Stern deciding in February to hand the keys to a pair of Downtown hotels — the Roxy and the Soho Grand — over to lenders, rather than continue making payments on a $100-million mortgage. In January, a separate pair of Lower Manhattan hotels — the 113-room Holiday Inn at 51 Nassau Street and the 112-unit Holiday Inn Express at 126 Water Street — was auctioned off to the highest bidder, after the holding company that owned the properties was unable to keep current on $385 million in debt. This local tsunami began a year ago, when the W Hotel, which closed temporarily at the outset of the pandemic coronavirus, announced that it would never reopen.

Matthew Fenton

Cry Me a River

The Battery Park City Authority’s highly regarded summer music festival, River & Blues, which has presented blues, folk, and roots music in Wagner Parkfor 20 years is returning with Devon Gilfillian’s emotional vocals (July 15); the Grammy Award-winning South Carolina-based quintet, Ranky Tanky (July 22), and Rev Sekou and the Freedom Fighters (July 29), who will perform their Delta Blues-infused anthems for social justice.

Each Thursday evening show begins at 6:00 pm, with DJ Susan Z. Anthony spinning an eclectic mix that sets the stage for the performance that follows. Admission is free.

‘Victory Is Statistically Certain’

Marte Campaign Claims Win in City Council Race

While official results are not yet available from New York City’s notoriously dysfunctional Board of Elections—a chronic situation made more complicated by this year’s advent of ranked choice voting—Christopher Marte appears to have won the race to succeed Margaret Chin (who was barred by term limits from seeking reelection) in representing Lower Manhattan in the City Council.

Unofficial results from the June 22 Democratic Party primary show To read more…

Don’t Pay the Ferryman

Lower Manhattan residents once again have access to the ever-popular weekend summer ferry to Red Hook.

Provided by NY Waterway, the free service is nominally about providing access to Ikea, but also offers the bonus of a slew of waterfront restaurants and parks within walking distance of the furniture store.

The service departs from two Downtown locations (Pier 11/Wall Street and the Battery Park City ferry terminal) starting at 11:00 am.

For more information, please browse: www.NYWaterway.com.

‘You Did This!’

BPCA Delays Controversial Plan for Another New Monument

A Monday afternoon rally at the Irish Hunger Memorial, originally planned as a protest meeting, turned into a victory celebration after the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) announced that it was putting on hold a controversial plan by Governor Andrew Cuomo to build an Essential Workers Monument within the community.

Congressman Jerry Nadler, who led the event, began by saying, “earlier today, the BPCA reversed course,” which caused the assembled crowd to erupt in cheers. To read more…

‘A Bad Idea’

Elected Officials Voice Opposition to Cuomo Monument Plan in Advance of Rally Today

Opposition continues to intensify against a plan by Governor Andrew Cuomo to create in Battery Park City a monument to essential workers who served during the COVID-19 pandemic, with numerous leaders calling the proposal ill advised and rushed.

On Thursday, Congressman Jerry Nadler posted a comment online saying that, “desecrating the Irish Hunger Memorial is a bad idea. Tearing up a heavily used volleyball court is a bad idea. Paving a park is a bad idea.”

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets are open

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich St & Chambers St

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Broadway & Whitehall St

Every Tuesday & Thursday, 8am-5pm

Food Scrap Collection: Tuesdays only, 8am-11am

The Greenmarket at Oculus Plaza, City Hall Greenmarket,

and Staten Island Ferry Greenmarket are temporarily closed.

Tribeca Sailing offers two-hour private sailing charters of the Harbor, setting sail five times each day, seven days a week. Captain David Caporale, the owner and captain of Tribeca Sailing and a Lower Manhattan resident, also offers private sailing charters for a maximum of six passengers, for those having a staycation, or celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. His sailboat, Tara, is a 1964 custom Hinckley Pilot 35. Hinckleys are noted as a Rolls Royce of sailboats, based on their solid construction, the artistry of the wood trim, and other design features. For more information or to book a sail, contact David Caporale 917-593-2281 or David@Tribecasailing.com

Today’s Calendar

Thursday July 15

2PM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

Spending the summer at Kellerman’s resort in the Catskills with her family, Frances “Baby” Houseman falls in love with the camp’s dance instructor, Johnny Castle. Watch their story unfold in Dirty Dancing (105 minutes, English, no subtitles), the classic 1987 film starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. The film’s soundtrack generated two multi-platinum albums and multiple singles, including “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”, which won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Grammy Award. $10

6PM

Wagner Park

Devon Gilfillian’s emotional vocals weave together with blues, rock, R&B, and hip-hop to form uniquely powerful modern soul music. Free

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

The Battery Park City Authority asks that the public not interact with or feed the urban wildlife in the neighborhood’s parks and green spaces, and at the waterfront.

‘Memorial Fatigue’

CB1 Weighs In on Plans for Essential Workers Monument in Battery Park City

During a five-hour meeting of Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee on Wednesday evening, at which more than 100 members of the Downtown community spoke, a team from the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) presented revised plans for the controversial proposed Essential Workers Monument.

This meeting followed two weeks of protest and dialog—during which residents opposed to the original version of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan (which would have located the memorial in Rockefeller Park) camped out in tents for four nights—that have led the Authority to propose locating the shrine elsewhere within the community.

9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Report

More Survivors than Responders Now are Submitting Claims

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2020, which documents some significant developments.

Over the course of its ten years of operation thus far, the VCF has awarded $7.76 billion to more than 34,400 individuals who have suffered death or personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.

TODAY IN HISTORY

July 15

1799 – The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign.

484 BC – Dedication of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in ancient Rome

1381 – John Ball, a leader in the Peasants’ Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England.

1799 – The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign.

1838 – Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage.

1910 – In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer’s disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.

1916 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westerveltincorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

1975 – Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first joint Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was both the last launch of an Apollo spacecraft and the Saturn family of rockets.

1979 – President Jimmy Carter gives his “malaise speech”.

2016 – Factions of the Turkish Armed Forces attempt a coup.

Births

1606 – Rembrandt, Dutch painter and etcher (d. 1669)

1817 – Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet, English engineer, designed the Forth Bridge (d. 1898)

1919 – Iris Murdoch, Anglo-Irish British novelist and philosopher (d. 1999)

Deaths

1445 – Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scotland

1542 – Lisa del Giocondo, subject of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Mona Lisa (b. 1479)

1904 – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer (b. 1860)

courtesy historyorb.com, Wikipedia and NYTimes.com and other internet sources

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