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Good News on Pier 40 Update and Call to Action on the future of Pier 40
As of the HRPT’s March 27, 2008 board meeting, the Related Companies proposal for a entertainment complex is dead! The Trust will work with the Pier 40 Partnership and the Camp Group and others to create a new way to develop the pier. We stopped a bad proposal. YOU stopped a bad proposal! Now we have to support the effort to rebuild the pier with a mix of park and low impact commercial uses.
This is an enormous victory for our community.
Trumping a powerful developer like Related is no cinch, and everyone who pitched in on this fight deserves to celebrate: the children of lower Manhattan, little leaguers and their parents, adult and youth soccer leagues, all of our local elected officials, Community Boards 1 and 2, and LGBT groups, advocates for more public schools and, most especially, the Pier 40 Partnership which spent the better part of a year meeting with all the decision makers, coming up with a proposal as to how to save Pier 40, put low-impact uses on Pier 40 and STILL generate the income required by the HRP Trust and the HRP Act.
Now that we have pushed back what we don’t want, it is time to help the Trust to organize leadership to repair and develop Pier 40 and to find low-impact, income-generating tenants for the park. We need to shift from oppositional to creating stewardship and financing for the Pier.
WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER!
Statement from Pier 40 Partnership – February 1, 2008
Yesterday, the board of directors of
Hudson River
Park postponed a decision on redevelopment of Pier 40 until their March 27 meeting.
The events of the last few days have been mixed. We were exceedingly pleased that all six of our local elected officials* wrote letters to the Trust to affirm there will be no amendment to the Hudson River Park Act to allow a 49-year lease for a project the community rejects. We were delighted that they all expressed openness to the idea of non-profit stewardship of the pier and the use of IDA bonds to finance its redevelopment, in keeping with concepts developed in the feasibility study prepared by HR&A Advisors. We were glad that the Trust has again withheld support from a Related Companies’s mega-entertainment proposal that at one time seemed to have the inside track. We were proud that the selection of Related has been prevented by the unified stand of our entire community. However, we were somewhat disappointed that the Trust was not persuaded that the time has come to close down the RFP.
The Trust said that neither developer has met the basic requirements to be designated to develop the pier. We agree. Related has stated it cannot provide the pro forma for a 30-year lease required by the RFP and the Park Act. We think now is a moment of opportunity to move the Pier 40 project forward, and that the effort would have been better served by creating an even playing field for all participants. Whatever path forward the Trust chooses, we believe it will be best served by first closing out the RFP, thereby enabling all concerned to engage fully in the enterprise.
We are pleased that the Trust understands there will be no change in the Park Act to accommodate a proposal that has no community support. But we are still concerned that some on the Trust board see this as a debate between "people who want no change on the one side and people who understand the park needs income on the other." To the contrary the community clearly understands that there will be commercial activities on Pier 40 to pay for repairs and support the Trust. Criticism of the Related plan has focused on the impacts of the intensive nighttime entertainment uses. In fact, the study prepared for the Partnership by HR&A pragmatically addresses the need for revenue while the Related plan depends on a fantasy: an amendment of the Act that has no support among legislators. A closer look at the community’s concerns and the concepts proposed by the Partnership will ultimately help the Trust overcome the difficult challenges ahead.
We are hopeful that the time between now and the next Trust board meeting can be used productively and that we can continue to work together to craft a plan to redevelop the pier in a way that benefits the park and the community.
* A joint letter from Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Assemblymembers Deborah J. Glick Richard N. Gottfried, and State Senators Martin Connor and Tom Duane is available at pier40.org/downloads/letter1.pdf A letter from Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn is available at pier40.org/downloads/letter2.pdf
Read the Pier 40 Partnership’s proposal for low-impact, community-friendly development which addresses the financial concerns of the Trust, while maintaining the Pier as a park here. For an overview, read this article in the Villager.
The HRPT will decide the fate of Pier 40 at the end of the month: we will live with this decision for many years to come.
Please keep reminding the elected officials and the Trust how you feel about Pier 40. Contact information is posted below. Use whatever means suit you: email, written letters, phone call, cards from your children, etc.
Write to and/or email Diana Taylor, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Spitzer, and any or all of your elected officials to let them know:
- a) what you think about the current proposals; and
- b) what you would like to see happen at Pier 40.
Make your mail personal, and detailed. We need them to know just how important the Pier is to the daily lives of the people who live in downtown New York.
If you have already sent a letter or email in the past, send another one now.
Here are some of the addresses you may want:
Ms. Diana Taylor, Hudson River Park Trust, Pier 40, Second Floor, West Street at Houston Street, New York, NY 10014
pier40rfp@hrpt.state.ny.us
A SHORT HISTORY
Since the May 3rd Public Hearing, the proposals for Pier 40 have been rejected by almost all of our local elected officials; by all official advisory groups including the Pier 40 Working Group, the Hudson River Park Advisory Council, and Community Boards 1 and 2; and by important organizations including Friends of Hudson River Park and Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. Nonetheless, it is still possible the Hudson River Park Trust board members will vote to accept a proposal from Related Companies that none of them personally support and they all know is not good for the park.
Since its creation in 1998, the Trust has a consistent history of working closely with the adjacent communities. They have avoided conflicts that threaten to undermine public support for the park project.
For the first time, the financial incentives to a powerful developer may prevail. The CEO of Related Companies has long personal and financial ties to Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, who is Vice Chair of the Trust. Because of this conflict of interest, Doctoroff has said publicly that he does not get involved in decisions that will benefit Related, but he is known to be pushing hard for Related behind the scenes.
No Board member or public official has voiced a single word of praise for the Related proposal – one that would transform the park into an intensively developed entertainment mall, promising to flood the area with tourists and others not involved in youth activities, moving the fields to the roof where children will be exposed to intense heat, cold, and wind, while bringing no more revenue to the Trust than the parking lot currently on site.
Yet the Trust may be resigned to accepting it. It is astounding that this unique and irreplaceable public resource may be given over to a single private company -- for dirt cheap rent – to exploit a project that most people hate: the only voices in favor are those who will directly and personally profit from the changes.
Please stay involved and stay in touch.
We value your suggestions and your participation, so please contact us if you want to help.
Send your email to saveourpark@pier40.org
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