If By “Vibrant And Attractive New Urban Community” You Mean A Superfund Site In A Flood Plain In The Flight Path To LaGuardia, Then I’m Right There With Ya!

Soon you, too, might be able to be part of a vibrant and attractive new urban community — in the approach path to LaGuardia Airport:

In the development dreams of the Bloomberg administration, the 75 acres of Willets Point will soon be transformed into “a vibrant and attractive new urban community.” There’ll be “an exciting and synergistic mix of land uses,” like a hotel with at least 250 rooms, a convention center, pedestrian gateways, and open space — all of which will complement the new Shea Stadium to rise in the parking lot across 126th Street. Developers selected by the Economic Development Corporation are to submit their proposals this week for “creating a regional destination, promoting economic growth and additional private investment, and improving the quality of life for area residents,” maybe with housing, office space, cultural facilities, and, of course, stores. “Shopping,” the EDC notes, “has become a form of entertainment in America.”

. . .

“The current streets are poorly maintained and inadequate to support additional development,” the EDC says. “Most of the properties in the district are unable to connect to the city’s storm and sanitary sewer system.” That means the human waste goes into cesspools, while the chemicals that run from the auto shops into the streets go wherever the water takes it, creating “an ongoing public health risk.” There are also incidents of illegal dumping, building code violations, and reports of stolen-parts trading with “possible links to organized crime.” In other words, the Iron Triangle is rusted with “blight.” So in order to bring in more and better paying jobs, the city’s timetable calls for current businesses to start relocating in 2008. And as in other development projects around the city, property owners at Willets Point could leave voluntarily — or be forced out by eminent domain.

Which is to say, in addition to the health risks, organized crime ties and potholes galore, there are 250 or so business employing 1,500 workers. But that’s was eminent domain is for:

There were few postcard-worthy images amid the rising water last Wednesday. A couple of mangy dogs roamed the streets, which are an unforgiving network of potholes, broken occasionally by the cadavers of cars. Oil flowed in rainbows through the widening, sometimes ankle-deep puddles. But spend any time in Willets Point, and you see something else.

“To me it’s very nice,” says Joe Ardezzone, who’s spent more time there than many: 73 years. The head of the Willets Point Business Association, he is apparently the Iron Triangle’s only resident, and he recalls a day when their were pheasants roaming the area before the auto businesses moved in during the ’40s. The smell of sewage makes your eyes tear up in the summer, and the roar of jets taking off from LaGuardia is ear-splitting. But Ardezzone insists the area is functioning. “It’s a low-class business but they’re doing a great service and at a reasonable price,” he says, pointing to the auto-repair shops. “This is thriving.”

But the Iron Triangle might be saved by the one thing that attracted businesses there in the first place — it’s a pretty shitty place to be:

This time the Willets Point site itself may be the area’s best defense against outside, private redevelopment. Preliminary environmental surveys of the area have found a litany of problems. There are storage tanks underground, the soil is too soft to hold heavy loads, it’s on a flood plain, and building heights are constrained because of its proximity to LaGuardia Airport.

The “winner” of the bid will be selected when proposals are submitted. Good luck . . .

See also: Iron Triangle.

I Like Nice Things, Or The Quietest Neighbor (Excepting A Cemetery, That Is) Is A Vacant Lot

First chowder, now condos (.pdf):

All Joe Chan wanted to do was bring a “Manhattan-style” condo tower to a run-down block in Boerum Hill.

And then all hell broke loose.

More than two-dozen people gathered recently in front of a vacant weed-infested lot owned by Chan. The purpose: to stop Chan’s 11-story tower after he likened its aesthetics to that of the evil island on Brooklyn’s western front.

“Manhattan-style,” he had called it.

Them’s fightin’ words in Boerum Hill.

“We don’t want what he has proposed,” explained protest organizer Deborah Kaufmann, who lives next door to Chan’s empty lot, formerly an auto garage. She believes his 11-story “tower” will spoil she calls the neighborhood’s “brownstone” look — though she readily
admits that her four-story home, 100 yards from the 14-story Gowanus Street Houses on Hoyt Street, is a regular old house and not one of the storied 19th century models.

“Manhattan is a borough full of very tall buildings and the canyons they create. Brooklyn is a borough of brownstones and similarly sized buildings,” explained Lydia Denworth, president of the council. “Manhattan has been built one way and Brooklyn another. We like the way Brooklyn’s been built and we want to keep it that way.”

Ironically, Chan believes he’s doing the Baltic Street homeowners a favor by turning the broken-concrete lot into a glossy new tower. To him, Manhattan equals wealth and wealth equals “nice” — and who doesn’t want that?

“I don’t know why [the neighbors] don’t want a nice building, they’d rather have an empty lot with rats,” Chan told The Brooklyn Papers, adding that he had never faced such opposition in Queens or Manhattan.

The idea that Manhattan would oppose that which is “Manhattan style” seems odd, but no matter.

Then there’s this from a Manhattan-style apologist:

“I don’t agree, but towers aren’t perceived as good neighbors anymore,” said Robert Scarano, a prolific architect whose seven-story South Slope tower has been caught in limbo since the stricter zoning became law last year.

Scarano isn’t siding with his critics, but merely showing that he’s another Manhattan-style architect who is willing to listen.

To a point.

“I’d like to hear the community opposition,” he told The Brooklyn Papers, “if [someone] tried to build the Williamsburgh Bank Building tower today.”

He’s got a point there, you know. The Williamsburgh Bank Building is pretty ridiculous . . .

You Can’t Stop The Donald, You Can Only Hope To Contain Him

Trump takes SoHo:

Donald Trump’s newest addition to the Manhattan skyline may come in the form of a 45-story luxury high-rise on the sleepy eastern edge of Hudson Square.

The developer and reality TV star unveiled plans this week to construct the condo-hotel, which would have 400 rooms, at 246 Spring St. between Varick St. and Sixth Ave. Sean Yazbeck, the latest winner of “The Apprentice” — Trump’s reality show — will be given the reins for constructing the project, dubbed Trump Soho Hotel Condominiums New York, which could break ground before the end of the year. Trump’s team hopes to open the hotel’s doors in 2009.

“We’re trying to build something that will change the landscape of Soho,” said Julius Schwarz, executive vice president of the Bayrock Group, the managing partner in the project, which is also being developed by Tamir Sapir, the ex-cab driver who famously paid $40 million for the Duke Semans Mansion on Fifth Ave. Two of Trump’s children, Donald, Jr., and daughter Ivanka, will oversee the project with their father.

The luxury hotel, equipped with an outdoor pool, a 30-person screening room, restaurant and members library, will be more pied-a-terre than short-stay hotel. Geared toward the hip, wealthy, 30-something crowd, every unit in the Handel Architects-designed building will be sold individually to buyers who might live there year-round, from time to time or seasonally. All owners will be free to offer up their Rockwell Group-designed units as hotel rooms, if they so choose. If built, this will be the first all-condo-hotel of its kind in the city, said Schwarz.

“We really wanted to create something that had that hotel feel,” he said. “We wanted a place that people could go to and use room service.”

The neighbors can barely contain their excitement in welcoming The Donald to the mix:

But building the luxury condo-hotel may not be so simple. The area is zoned for manufacturing, which does not generally permit long-term-stay hotel uses.

“No way, they can’t do that here, it’s against the zoning,” said architect David Reck, chairperson of the Community Board 2 Zoning Committee.

. . .

Some nearby residents are less than thrilled to see a 45-story tower crop up in their neighborhood.

“It’s terrible. It’s an abomination in a low-rise neighborhood,” said Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance. But Sweeney doubts there is much that can be done to stop a tall building from coming — the law allows for large buildings there and the developers purchased the air rights from a nearby property to supplement the height.

“What can you do? There’s nothing you can do to stop it,” Sweeney said.

My Fist, Your Gastropub

The Villager takes an in-depth look at the closed* E.U. gastropub:

Last month, Giraldi tried opening with a bring-your-own-bottle policy. But this lasted just a day after the S.L.A. notified him that this was illegal without obtaining a license. (According to Bill Crowley, an S.L.A. spokesperson, only restaurants with 20 or fewer seats can operate B.Y.O.B. without a license; E.U. has more than 80 seats.)

Nevertheless, for a month, E.U. stayed open, and foodies flocked to enjoy its European-based cuisine, such as beef cheek with sauerbraten, branzino with paella and tea-marinated lamb chops with mint. E.U. was open all day and also served breakfast and lunch. The menu, based on what Giraldi calls “the best dishes of the mother countries of Europe,” has been cooked up by chef Gwenael Le Pape, a native of Brittany, formerly of Les Halles restaurant.

But without alcohol, it wasn’t profitable to stay open, and three weeks ago Giraldi closed E.U. — only temporarily, he hopes. Meanwhile, the tables remain set, complete with disposable brown-paper menus, and plates and wine glasses are neatly stored in their racks.

Giraldi has applied for a beer and wine license — a lower-level license — and expects a decision from the S.L.A. in as soon as a month. However, after the S.L.A. rejected E.U.’s application for a full liquor license in March, Susan Stetzer, Community Board 3 district manager, said the opponents would also oppose the beer and wine license.

“I don’t see anything different about it,” Stetzer said at the time.

. . .

In September 2004, E. Fourth St. between Avenues A and B was designated a moratorium area for new liquor licenses, meaning C.B. 3 issues an automatic denial for applications for both full liquor licenses and beer and wine licenses on the block. However, if the block association now decides to work with Giraldi, then C.B. 3 — while still issuing its automatic “No” recommendation under the moratorium — wouldn’t fight the application at the S.L.A., Stetzer said.

At the same time, it’s a little hard to see how the restaurant will be a raucous bar:

“I am a co-owner of 12 legitimate restaurants — not clubs, not bars — legitimate food establishments with legitimate, highly praised and acclaimed chefs,” [Giraldi] stressed. “That’s what turns me on: good food, good wine, good talk. And my places are usually closed well before what you would call ‘nightlife,’ and especially on weekends.”

Giraldi says his Gigino Trattoria in Tribeca, for example — unlike its more upscale neighbors, Nobu and Bouley — doesn’t cater to the black-car crowd from Uptown, but is a “neighborhood restaurant.”

His other restaurants include August, Diablo Royale, BREADTribeca, Jean Georges at Columbus Circle, Vong, Mercer Kitchen and Prime in Las Vegas. None of his restaurants have ever received any complaints from neighbors, he said.

*As reported by Florence Fabricant.

That Them There House Is A Whore House!

Neighbors are shocked to discover that the place across the street with scantily clad Korean women is actually a brothel:

According to sources in the Queens’ Vice Detective Squad, the corner house located at 151-04 Bayside Ave. had been rented and used by a prostitution ring for the past month, where Korean women with little or no English proficiency were selling their bodies for sexual returns.

. . .

According to neighbors, the house had been a regular evening destination for male patrons, who could be seen parking their cars nearby and walking in through a side entrance. Scantily clad Korean women could also be found exiting cabs and walking into the home from the front entrance.

One neighbor, who asked not to be identified, didn’t believe that prostitution could exist just across the street from where he was tending his garden days before the arrests were made.

On June 7, the neighbor kept watch outside his window after a Tribune reporter asked him if he noticed any abnormal activity.

“When the ballgame is on, I don’t usually look out the window,” said the neighbor. “But this time I did and said, ‘(The Tribune) was right, that’s a whore house.'”

And we all know who the busybody is who ruined it for everyone else:

Days earlier, the Tribune received the tip from a neighbor who would only be identified as Dorothy.

“Once these people moved in, they started business immediately,” said Dorothy.

Sources said there were three “fully operational floors,” with rows of beds lined throughout the house. From front entrance photographs, what could be seen inside was a living room with a cloth draped couch, candles set on a coffee table and at least two surveillance cameras, with one aimed at the home’s front entrance. A separate table showed boxes of cigarettes and packages of KY Personal Lubricant. Two of the women arrested wore aprons with Korean lettering.

“It was set up like a spa,” said a police source.
From the outside, there were drape-covered windows, a fenced-in side yard surrounded by patio furniture and a second story deck. Grounds throughout the property appeared neatly manicured.

“If something like that snuck in, I’m surprised,” said Thomas Feeks, a 50-year nearby resident.