BY LESLEY SUSSMAN | The city’s plan to redevelop the P.C. Richard & Son site at 124 E. 14th St. has drawn the watchful eye of Community Board 3, which says it will strongly oppose any redevelopment of that property that does not support the everyday needs of the surrounding community.
The store, which has operated on the city-owned site for 19 years, recently announced it will close its doors in February when its lease expires. New York City’s Economic Development Corporation has already called for proposals to redevelop the property and wants to replace the electronics shop mainly with tech startup offices.
In a statement, E.D.C. President Maria Torres-Springer said, “The current site of the P.C. Richard store will serve as a new tech hub in Union Square, capitalizing on the academic and transit advantages offered by the neighborhood and its proximity to the Flatiron District. This is just one example of how we are finding creative uses for the assets we have in a city where space is harder and harder to come by.”
However, at its Dec. 22 full board meeting at P.S. 20, at 166 Essex St., C.B. 3 made it perfectly clear that while it “strongly supports modern job creation within its district,” its first priority is to develop a strong local economy that is “diverse, affordable, supportive of independent small businesses and reflective of the residential community.”
In a resolution passed by the board, C.B. 3 said it will specifically oppose any new chain store being located at the site, as well as a college dormitory and any eating or drinking establishments — due to a proliferation of such businesses in the neighborhood — and will only support retail businesses that are affordable to the local community.
The board’s resolution also stipulated that if the city decides to build any housing there, it must be “100 percent permanently affordable.”
Board members also expressed disappointment that they were not given the opportunity to collaborate with E.D.C. before its call for bids from developers was announced.
At the C.B. 3 meeting, Linda Jones, the chairperson of the board’s Landmarks Committee said that the city’s announcement last month of its plans for the site caught board members totally off guard.
“We were surprised to hear about it and to learn that the deadline for bids was Dec. 29,” she said. “But we were able to get that extended to Feb. 1.”
In another matter, C.B. 3 also expressed its concern about the future development of the old Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal space located underneath Delancey St. The abandoned terminal is part of the Essex Crossing redevelopment project planned for that area. The trolley terminal, which is leased from the city by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, has been dormant since 1948 and is located at the foot of the bridge, where the proposed Lowline park would be constructed.
In a proposal passed by the board, C.B. 3 said it worried that the site “may be used for a purpose that would encourage luxury development and displacement of low-income residents.”
The board requested that E.D.C. allow community input regarding any future utilization of the old trolley site.
After the meeting, Jones told this newspaper that she was “surprised” that E.D.C. had announced bids for that site without any community consultation, and that the board wants to sit down with the city agency to discuss the matter.
In other board action, C.B. 3 said that an application by the new Russ & Daughters Cafe at 127 Orchard St. to expand its operation was unkosher.
The legendary 100-year-old appetizer shop, which recently opened this new full-service restaurant counterpart serving Jewish comfort food, is applying for a full on-premise liquor license that would allow the cafe to display liquor bottles behind its bar and play unamplified live music once a month.
C.B. 3 voted to deny the application unless certain stipulations were met, including that the cafe continue to operate as a full-service kosher-style dairy restaurant and that it only play recorded ambient background music and that there be no DJs.
The board also said it wants to make certain that the restaurant “will not have happy hours, will not host pub crawls or party buses, and that the cafe have a closed facade with no open doors and windows,” so as not to disturb neighbors.
Also at the Dec. 22 board meeting, Councilmember Rosie Mendez reported on some of her latest activities. Mendez said she and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer have proposed legislation that would create a bicycle safety task force.
She said that over the next two years, 10 town hall meetings will be held in every borough each year to discuss the impact of cycling on individual neighborhoods.
Mendez also reported to the board and the more than 50 local residents who attended the meeting that she and Councilmember Daniel Dromm had opposed a recently passed a bill that will require the city to provide $20 million for private and religious schools’ security guards.
In total, the city will provide $19.8 million for at least one private security guard in each nonpublic school, including yeshivas and other religious schools with 300 or more students.
Despite public opposition to the hotly debated bill, introduced by Brooklyn Councilmember David Greenfield, the legislation was approved overwhelmingly by a vote of 43 to 4. Mendez said she wanted to see these millions of dollars invested, instead, in the city’s “resource-starved public schools.”
Also at the board meeting, Adam Chen, a spokesman for Public Advocate Leticia James, said that James has called on TD Bank to terminate financial backing of gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson.
Chen said that the guns used in the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, in which 14 people were killed and 21 were wounded, were manufactured by the gun-making company. He reported that James had sent a letter to Mike Pederson, TD Bank president and C.E.O.; Bharat Masrani, TD Bank board chairperson; and Bob Dorrance, TD Securities chairperson, C.E.O. and president, asking them “to immediately review and terminate, to the extent possible, their agreement with Smith & Wesson.”
