Town Hall Meeting - June 1st

SPEAK OUT AGAINST "THE SPIKE" !

Join your neighbors in the Preserve West Park North Coalition on

• THURSDAY, JUNE 1, AT 7 P.M., AT PS 163 (West 97^th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam).

DEMAND that the people who live here have a say in what is built here. “The Spike” is only the beginning. More buildings are being planned, filling every open space with luxury housing.

If you want affordable housing, affordable local stores, trees and a chance to see the sky once in a while, come to voice your needs and concerns.

_________________________________

Click here to see an artist's rendering from a real estate magazine where the landlord is already advertising three contiguous blocks of retail space (“over 235,000 Square Feet”) on Columbus from 97^th to 100^th Street, available for high-end commercial space. Note that only half of the height of the 29-story-plus residential luxury tower (“The Spike”) is shown and more are planned. This huge structure would cut off access to Columbus Avenue for 784, 788 and 792, and add a road somewhere, thus splitting the original village in two and dismantling the superblocks and our sense of community.

Click here for a copy of the flyer announcing the meeting -- in English and Spanish. You need Acrobat Reader to download this file. You can get Acrobat Reader for free.

Crain's New York, May 17, 2006

Columbus Avenue retail project moves forward
by Elisabeth Butler

A plan to redevelop Columbus Avenue between 97th and 100th
streets is moving ahead.

The project, known as 808 Columbus Avenue, includes a 29-
story residential building and 220,000 square feet of
retail space.

PWV Acquisition, which bought the property in 2000, tapped
Winick Realty Group to manage the retail leasing. There
will be 60,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, as
well as a 80,000-square-foot basement and an 80,000-square-
foot second story, according to the realty company.

Winick executives declined to comment beyond a written
statement.

Business leaders in the neighborhood have speculated about
PWV’s plans for the site of the former Park West Village
since retail tenants were told last year that they would
have to move. The last remaining tenant, a C-Town grocery
store, closed last month. The redeveloped retail space is
expected to house a supermarket, fashion boutiques,
restaurants, national retailers and specialty shops.

“The businesses that were there were really serving the
community, and they are a loss,” says Peter Arndtsen,
district manager of the Columbus/Amsterdam Business
Improvement District. “But we don’t have many attractive
businesses to draw people in from outside the
neighborhood.”

808 Columbus Avenue is expected to open in 2008.

©2006 Crain Communications Inc.

News Release - May 6 Shopping Cart Protest

“The landlord bought out and boarded up at least 11 one-story local businesses on Columbus and Amsterdam between West 97th to 100th Streets. We heard that demolition of the commercial strips will begin this month, but it remains a mystery what they plan to build in their place,” explained Vivian Dee, president of the newly-formed coalition “Preserve West Park North.”

“It boggles the mind,” said Lois Hoffman, president of the Park West Village Tenants Association. “Park West Village has seven buildings, 2,500 apartments and 5,000 residents in two superblocks that stretch from Central Park West to Amsterdam, 97th to 100th Streets. It has been an important and influential planned community for decades. How can the owner get away with keeping large-scale changes a secret from us?”

The closing of the businesses, and the fear that green and open spaces, playgrounds and parking lots will be eliminated, led the surrounding community to band together this spring to form “Preserve West Park North” (PWPN). Still growing, the PWPN coalition includes people from Park West Village rental and condo units, the Westgate and Central Park Gardens Mitchell-Lama complexes bordering Park West Village on the south, several other Mitchell-Lamas in the West Side Urban Renewal District along Columbus and Amsterdam, Frederick Douglass Houses (a NYCHA complex bordering Park West Village on the north), the Ryan Health Center, leaders in several churches and other groups.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell and City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, who have been working with their constituents on this issue, also will speak at the rally.

“In the 1950s, Robert Moses took this land by eminent domain,” said Jean Dorsey, president of the Westgate apartments which are home to more than 400 families on West 96th and 97th Streets. “Moses dislocated an existing community, bulldozed its brownstones and, in order to achieve this, he persuaded the city and state to make a covenant that Park West Village would be built as a planned, affordable community. Working and middle-class families were attracted back to this area by airy apartments, landscaped outdoor spaces, a school, library, health center and more. Public money went to buy this
land, but now it seems that private money can take over without notice. We built this community from funky to fabulous and we are stakeholders in its future.”

Stores Deserted
The local lumber, discount and hardware stores are gone. The bustling Greek diner that served as a neighborhood hub is closed. Streets are dark and frightening at night for many seniors who have raised their families in the complex almost since its inception. Across West 100th Street, tenants in NYCHA’s sprawling Frederick Douglass Houses fear that their green, open spaces will be the next to be viewed as buildable sites and already feel the loss of C-Town’s reasonable prices.

On April 29, the C-Town supermarket was the last of the businesses to close. Others included Amster Furniture, Barcelona Bakery, West Side Tae Kwan Do, My Home, Broadway Carpet and AJO Lumber & Hardware, located on Amsterdam between 98th and 100th Streets; and Express Corner Deli, Covenant Discount (a traditional five-and-dime store), Tandoori restaurant, and Central Park Cafe located on Columbus between 97th and 100th Streets.

“It had taken quite awhile to get to the point where people actually came north of 96^th Street to do their shopping, but these merchants finally succeeded in helping make our streets busy and welcoming,” president Dee said. “Now, what – if anything – affordable and useful will replace these businesses?”
The Coalition says that the original height and size of the seven Park West Village buildings were allowed to exceed standards of the day, because the original developer agreed to keep the two shopping strips to one story and to maintain open, landscaped areas. The group believes that such planned communities in the city should be preserved, either through landmarking or zoning. They want to play a decisive role in the developer’s plan before ground is broken for any new project. A partnership of Joseph Chetrit and Larry Gluck owns the land and has formulated the unknown proposed project.

Historic Church Threatened
The Rev. Heidi Neumark, pastor of Trinity Lutheran church on 100th Street near Amsterdam, has been told that demolition will begin next to her historic 1907 Gothic-style church. “They say that the vintage painted glass windows, known as a poor man’s stained glass and made by designer Henry Birkenstock of Mount Vernon, will have to be taken out and the lead soldering removed,” she said. “For an unknown period, we will have to worship in the dark and restoration costs will be prohibitive.”

Neumark, who said she was attracted to the church because of the diverse surrounding community, has seen a growing congregation, most recently Columbia students and Mexican immigrants and their children who are moving into the Manhattan Valley community north of 100th Street. The church, whose physical foundation is believed to be solid despite the ancient streams that run beneath it, offers worship and outreach programs in English and Spanish.

“Preserve West Park North came together to give voice to an affordable, livable community that is being threatened,” said Sue Susman, president of Central Park Gardens Tenants Association and founder of www.save-ml.org. “We insist that there be affordable housing in any new project in our community. Any construction or change to the grounds must be contextual and on a human scale. Those of us who made this community on the Upper West Side of Central Park have a right to be part of the decision-making process, as do other tenants throughout the city whose protections are eroding. Let our coalition serve as a role model. “

Susman summed it up: “Our slogan is ‘Nothing about us without us.’ Preserve our superblocks.”

# # #

Curbed Publication on ''The Spike''

This story is from a publication that obviously wants to "celebrate" these luxury invasions that will permanently change the middle- and working-class neighborhood that we built. Click on the underlined name of the article to see it on the actual website and to follow the blog. This article incorrectly states that the Extell company will be developing the area along Columbus Avenue between 97th and 100th Streets, and on Amsterdam Avenue between 99th and 100th Streets. But while Extell is developing Ariel East and Ariel West on Broadway, Gluck and Chetrit are the developers for Columbus and Amsterdam, destroying the "village" of Park West Village.

More UWS Upzoning: 808 Columbus Eyes 29 Stories

Thursday, May 18, 2006, by Lockhart

---

With the upper Upper West Side already awaiting the completion of Extell's twin Ariel West and Ariel East developments on Broadway and 99th, folks over on Columbus Avenue have their own megaproject to celebrate. A Curbed correspondent reports:

Community Board 7 is up in arms over a proposal to develop a 29-story residential tower with commercial space fronting Columbus Ave. The site in question sits on the super-block between 97th and 100th St that used to be occupied by several commercial vendors, including a recently closed C-Town on the corner of 100th and Columbus. The site is being developed by the beloved Extell, and is being fought by all the usual suspects, including residents of Park West Village.

Last night Community Board 7's 97th-110th St Task Force approved a draft resolution that would rezone Extell's proposed with a height-ceiling to prevent proliferation of 808 Columbus Aves - but since that site is being developed as is, there's nothing the Community Board of the City Planning Commission can do to stop 808.

No word yet on the Stop Extell blog, nor renderings of 808 Columbus, though Crain's has a few details about the commercial space. Anyone know more?
· Columbus Avenue retail project moves forward [Crain's]
· Where Supermarkets Fell, Ariel East and West Rise [Curbed]

Posted in Manhattan: Upper West Side, Real Estate Development, Retail

West Side Spirit, May 25, 2006

West Side Spirit, May 25, 2006, p. 22

POLS, RESIDENTS GLIMPSE FUTURE

Park West Village project inspires fresh debate

By Charlotte Eichna

A picture of the future has surfaced at last.

And residents, for the most part, aren’t happy.

The image in question would be a rendering of what developers intend to build amidst a plot of land known as Park West Village, a planned middle class community on Columbus Avenue in the upper 90s that includes several apartment buildings, street-fronts and open space.

For months, neighbors speculated about what would appear in their backyards. A protest recently punctuated the closing of a C-Town supermarket, the last of the local merchants whose stores once populated the area. Developers said they intended to share their plans with the community, but nothing concrete had been made public.

Then a resident came across an advertisement for 808 Columbus Avenue in a real estate trade publication. There, laid out in color, was a rendering of the proposed building and commercial space.

“It’s totally out of place in the community. It’s a midtown [building]. The commercial stuff is like the Time Warner building – all glass,” said Vivian Dee, a Park West Village resident. “It’s alienating, it’s cold.”

She is particularly incensed that the residential tower would essentially block off half of Park West Village – the part that is mostly condominiums, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West – from the other half of the community, which consists of rentals between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues.

“Columbus Avenue then becomes a barrier between the two parts of Park West Village,” she said.

Dee, who heads up the Preserve West Park North Coalition, the group that organized the protest in early May, said she is planning a June 1 town hall meeting to discuss the project.

Although the site’s owners and developers, the Chetrit Group and Stellar Management, haven’t finalized the design yet, they are currently planning a 29-story residential tower of market-rate rentals, according to a spokeswoman, Kathleen Cudahy, and new storefronts.

“There will be a lot of green space on top of the commercial space,” she said.

They also hope to turn the village’s parking lots into green space and move parking underground.

Developers ay the plans are as-of-right and don’t require community review and approval, an assertion that has been questioned by some.

Community meetings are still being planned, Cudahy said, so that residents can share their thoughts about what sort of businesses they’d like to see in the commercial space. “We know that they need a food store,” she said. “These are all things that we’d appreciate hearing from the community on.”

Whole Foods, she confirmed, had been discussed as a tenant, although there were concerns about it being too pricey.

A representative from Whole Foods said the company did not talk about potential locations except during quarterly earnings calls.

Both Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell have met with developers to review the architectural renderings.

“I told them I thought they had to go back to the drawing board and come up with more than one potential option for them to present to the community,” O’Donnell said explaining that because it was a very articulate and involved community, the developers would be doing themselves a favor by seeking local input.

While saying he understands that real estate is a business, O’Donnell indicated he’d be happier if the proposed residential tower were more in line with its 16-story Park West Village neighbors.

“The community exists in a wonderful, harmonious way and we should do everything we can to protect that harmony and not have Midtown-like skyscrapers in the middle of our blocks,” he said.

Anthony Borelli, Stringer’s director of land use, planning and development, said the plans would have a significant impact on the community and stressed the importance of involving residents.

“The developer also has a responsibility to look out for the quality of life of the folks he collects rents from,” Borelli said.

Cudahy, the developers’ spokesperson, said designers did take into consideration what views might be blocked by new construction. At one point, they had discussed building two towers on either end of the plot.

“If you do that, you block the views of the people who are closer to the new proposed building,” she said. “Distance between the proposed tower and the existing tower to the west is in excess of 200 feet. That’s wider than any avenue in the city, it’s quite a distance. So in order to preserve as many views as possible, we felt that the single tower is a better way to go.”

May 6 rally

We held a wonderful, spirited rally at 100th Street and Columbus Avenue on May 6, 2006. Over 300 people came! Click here for some snapshots of the rally by photographer Frank Leonardo.

And click here to see the English-Spanish flyer for the rally. You can scroll down the page to see some articles about it.

CBS Eyewitness News Report

May 6, 2006

Click here for a video clip of the CBS (Channel 2) news report on Preserve West Park North.

West Side Spirit, May 11, 2006

From the West Side Express page, May 11, 2006

SHOPPING CART PROTEST -- Shopping carts in hand, West Side residents and elected officials convened May 6 for a rally to protest the closing of local neighborhood stores and to express their displeasure at being left out of the planning process for a yet-to-be unveiled development.

The stores, which populated a superblock hemmed by 97th Street, Columbus Avenue, 100th Street an Amsterdam Avenue, were all emptied by the landlord over the course of the last few months to make way for a commercial and residential development. The property's owners, Stellar Management and the Chetrit Group, have not yet made plans public.

"The places that made a community cohesive are gone," said Vivian Dee, president of the newly formed Preserve Park WEst North Coalition, which organized the rally. Dee added that close to 300 signatures were gathered at the event on a petition demanding that the community be involved in the site's plans.

Kathleen Cudady, a spokeswoman for the owners, said demolition should start "within the next few weeks."

"We are sharing the plans right now with elected officials," she said. "As soon as that's done, we want to have some sort of community forum."

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who spoke at the rally, said, "We want the community to have a seat at the table in planning its own future."

Assembly Member Daniel O'Donnell and Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito, among others, also spoke at the event.

Click here to see the accompanying photo.

NY Daily News

May 7, 2006

People Power vs. Tower on W. Side

Pushing grocery carts, waving signs and chanting slogans, more than 100 Manhattan residents rallied yesterday to protest the gentrification of their neighborhood.

Residents expressed disgust that their local C-Town supermarket had been shuttered - claiming it was closed to make way for luxury apartment towers in the area bordered by Columbus and Amsterdam Aves. and 97th and 100th Sts. "This neighborhood was created to accommodate the diverse people who live here," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

"They're taking everything from us," said Joan Sandler, who said she has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years. "It's one of the last diverse communities left."

Jego R. Armstrong and Don Singleton