By Albert Amateau
Basketball City’s tenure on Pier 63 is under a double whammy.
On May 11, the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany denied Basketball City permission to make a last-ditch appeal of the case that Hudson River Park Trust, the state-city agency building the 5-mile-long riverfront park, had won in its suit to compel Basketball City to leave the pier on W. 23rd St.
Two weeks earlier, two waterfront advocacy groups, Friends of Hudson River Park and the Chelsea Waterside Park Association, gave Basketball City until May 15 to come up with a plan to get off Pier 63.
Bruce Radler, president of Basketball City, said he was not prepared to comment either on the Court of Appeals ruling or the ultimatum from Friends of Hudson River Park and Chelsea Waterside Park Association.
The Friends and the Chelsea group want both Basketball City, which operates 16 full-size basketball courts under a bubble on the roof, and the Police Department’s Mounted Unit, which subleases its stables on the first level from Basketball City, to leave the pier so that it can be incorporated as soon as possible into the riverfront park, under construction between Chambers and 59th Sts.
Attorney Daniel L. Alterman, who last year represented the Friends in winning an agreement from the Department of Sanitation to set a date to get garbage trucks off the Gansevoort Peninsula in the Village so that a park could be built there, sent ultimatums on April 24 to Radler and to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
“If by May 15, Basketball City has not made a firm public commitment to vacate Pier 63 promptly, our clients intend to initiate legal action to require it to do so,” the letter to Radler says.
Basketball City holds the primary lease on the pier from the state of New York. In 2003, the Police Department was forced to move its Midtown Mounted Unit from 42nd St. to make way for residential construction, and subleased the first floor of the pier, which an equestrian center had vacated two years earlier. The Pier 63 location was ideal for the Mounted Unit during the Republican National Convention.
Alterman’s letter to Commissioner Kelly and to Deputy Mayor for Operations Patricia Harris demands that the mounted troop promptly vacate the stables on Pier 63.
“If by May 15 N.Y.P.D. has not made a firm public commitment to vacate Pier 63 promptly, our clients intend to initiate legal action to require the department to do so,” says the letter.
Both letters cite the Hudson River Park Act, which had set a 2004 deadline for vacating the pier. The letters say that both Basketball City and the police are delaying construction of the park by remaining on the pier.
Until this year, the delay was not significant because there were no funds to begin converting Pier 63 for park uses. But this year, the Trust has the funds to work on Pier 63 and the delay is real, the letters say.
The Trust filed a lawsuit in 2004 to evict Basketball City, but the basketball facility remained despite losing in State Supreme Court and the Appellate Division. The Court of Appeals decision put an end to Basketball City’s last hope for Pier 63.
“We assume Basketball City is aware of the Court of Appeals decision and is making plans to vacate the pier as soon as possible,” said Chris Martin, spokesperson for the Trust. “The Trust now has all the legal means to enforce the previous court decisions and we’re also working with the city to find a place to relocate the Mounted Unit,” Martin said. The efforts by the Friends and Chelsea Waterside Park Association to get Basketball City and the mounted police off the pier are entirely separate from the Trust’s legal action, Martin said.
A police spokesperson said last week that the department has not yet found an alternative stable for the Mounted Unit despite making every effort to find one.
Nevertheless, the spokesperson said in a phone interview that Chelsea residents benefit from added police presence every time a mounted detail leaves the pier and trots east to Eighth Ave. and Uptown for Theater District duty.
Alterman said last week that the Friends and the Chelsea group would concentrate first on Basketball City, the primary leaseholder.
“The Court of Appeals makes it clear what Basketball City has always known — that they have to vacate the pier,” Alterman said.
While Radler has not responded to the letters from Friends and the Chelsea group nor commented on the Court of Appeals denial, he had made a pitch in April for support from the Community Board 2 Parks and Waterfront Committee for a proposal to move the courts from the roof of Pier 63 to the roof of Pier 40 at Houston St. where the Trust last year installed an artificial-turf sports field in the pier’s massive courtyard. The C.B. 2 committee declined to make any recommendation and the Trust did not respond to the suggestion.
Radler is also seeking to establish an East Side branch of Basketball City on part of Pier 36, near the southern end of East River Park. Indeed, he was designated the preferred developer several years ago. But the project is not final because the city Office of Emergency Management has been using part of Pier 36 for storage since 2001 and must find an alternative. Radler said he is trying to get ready for the beginning of a city uniform land use review procedure for the Pier 36 proposal.
Although Community Board 3 has recommended approval of Basketball City’s Pier 36 project, Victor Papa, president of the Two Bridges Association, insists a private basketball facility is not appropriate for a public pier in an area with a low-income population. Papa said last week that he has doubts about the legality of Basketball City’s designation as the Pier 63 developer. Radler has promised that Basketball City would provide time for free use by the community.
