BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Last November, Gregg Singer, the owner of the former CHARAS/El Bohio building, assured The Villager he would eventually get the city’s O.K. to convert the interior of the landmarked, old former school into a college dormitory.
Singer had gutted the space, but then the work ground to a halt.
“Just waiting for approvals,” he calmly said back then. “You know — it just takes time.”
On Aug. 14, the Department of Buildings approved Singer’s plan application to “build out” the University House dorm inside the old P.S. 64, at 605 E. Ninth St.
However, while permits are now likely to follow, they still have not been issued to allow work to start.
“University House is an exciting new state-of-the-art college living experience with a grand opening for the 2016/17 school year in the heart of the East Village,” reads a description on the project’s Web site (www.university-house.info/project_info.html).
“The redevelopment and historic restoration of this century-old landmark, a former New York City elementary school, will be transformed into a modern, amenity-rich home designed, built and managed for 535 students for New York’s participating colleges and universities,” the site advertises. “Ideal for all students with safety and amenities as the top priorities. University House will become the perfect place for New York City’s students to live, study and socialize.”
So far, The Cooper Union and Joffrey Ballet School have signed contracts with Singer for space in University House. The ground floor and first floor are slated for 50 and 82 beds, respectively, for Joffrey. Cooper Union has a 15-year lease for 98 beds on each of the second and third floors, for a total of 196 beds.
The fourth floor, with space for 98 beds, has not been leased out yet, nor has the fifth floor, which is planned for 109 beds.
Ever since he bought the old, decommissioned school building at city auction in 1998 for $3.2 million, Singer has faced staunch opposition from local politicians and community activists who want the building returned to use as a community center.
An early plan of his to demolish the existing building and replace it with a sleek, 23-story dormitory tower was shot down by the city. He then pitched another scheme to retain just the building’s front facade and add a smaller tower. But, in 2006, the building was landmarked, putting an end to Singer’s tower dreams.
Speaking last week, City Councilmember Rosie Mendez said she was extremely angry that two letters she wrote to D.O.B. challenging the project’s legality have gone unanswered.
“I’m not in a very good place. I’m very upset,” she said. “I wrote the Department of Buildings a year ago, stating my belief that, according to the deed restriction, this was not a legal lease. Then I sent another letter regarding my concern with the Joffrey Ballet.”
Specifically, in her April 30, 2013, letter to D.O.B., Mendez expressed concern that the lease with Cooper Union was “overbroad, speculative and nonconforming to the requirements of the Dorm Rule, and potentially lacking certain legal requirements of a binding contract.”
In short, under the agreement, Cooper Union has the “right of first refusal” on up to 196 beds, which its students will have the option to rent or not to rent. In turn, Cooper can sublease the unused beds to another school.
“The whole lease was written in a very fraudulent way,” Mendez told The Villager last week. “The Dorm Rule was created because people were building dorms but didn’t have leases. They were building bigger by using the community-facility bonus.”
According to Mendez, the lease with Cooper Union also doesn’t guarantee that there would be, as required under the Dorm Rule, an “institutional nexus” — or a nonprofit entity that would manage or control the dorm for at least 10 years.
In her more recent, April 25, 2014, letter to D.O.B., Mendez again expressed her “grave concerns” about the dorm project, as well as her frustration at the agency’s lack of response to her first letter.
Mendez questioned the fact that during the summer months, Singer would have control over the building’s beds, meaning there won’t be a “continuous institutional nexus” throughout the year, which is a violation of the Dorm Rule, she charged.
She also expressed frustration that Cooper Union is not revealing how many beds it plans to use, depriving the public of transparency about the plan.
Asked for clarification by The Villager regarding Cooper Union’s plans at University House, including how many beds it foresees its students actually using, Justin Harmon, the school’s vice president for communications, issued a terse e-mail response.
“To my knowledge, the terms of the agreement have not changed,” he said.
Singer did not return calls for comment.
As she did in her letter regarding Cooper Union’s lease, Mendez similarly challenged the legitimacy of Singer’s agreement with Joffrey Ballet School, which came on board the project after Cooper Union. Mendez argued that the Joffrey lease’s terms are “ambiguous.”
“[The lease] only requires Joffrey Ballet to rent a minimum of 10 beds out of 132 beds,” Mendez wrote D.O.B. in April. “My concern is that any and all remaining beds outside of the 10-bed minimum requirement will be rented out as student hostel beds (as previously proposed by Gregg Singer), which will violate the permissible use of the premises. Therefore, I ask that D.O.B. limit the scope of the permit application and demand further information. …
“I request that D.O.B. refrain from approving this application until the owner clarifies all ambiguities and my office is granted a meeting with D.O.B. to discuss the contract’s adherence to the law,” Mendez concluded the second letter.
Mendez and community activists are also querying the characterization of Joffrey Ballet School as an academic institution, countering that it’s really a vocational institution.
However, Mendez told The Villager, “D.O.B. made a decision Joffrey is a nonprofit with sleeping accommodations.”
Asked now what her next move will be, Mendez resolutely warned, “I will take any legal measures necessary. They have not responded to my letters. They should have responded to my letters.”
Sara Romanoski, executive director of the East Village Community Coalition, said that, contrary to rumor, the group has not yet retained a lawyer at this stage to fight the dorm project.
“The former P.S. 64 building should be restored to a true community facility that upholds the intention of the [community use] deed restriction instated at the building’s sale,” she said. “We are committed to ensuring that the building is developed in strict accordance with the zoning code, a standard that previous plans failed to meet.”
Roland Legiardi-Laura is a founding member of E.V.C.C., which battled Singer’s dorm tower plans and helped push to get the building landmarked. A filmmaker and poet, he lives a block away from the old school building.
“I’m sure that someone can bring an Article 78 lawsuit, but it has to be legitimate,” he said, regarding a potential legal challenge to city approvals for the project.
“Can he get the other floors rented?” he questioned. “Is Cooper Union really committed to this? He’s got to produce legitimate leases with these people.”
Ideally, Legiardi-Laura said, the building would be restored as a community center for the neighborhood, like “a CHARAS on steroids,” as he put it. Singer evicted the Latino community and cultural organization a few years after buying the old school.
Perhaps Mayor de Blasio really could take the place back by eminent domain, as Community Board 3 has implied he should, but that would mean a “legal pit-bull battle for a few years,” he noted.
On the other hand, Legiardi-Laura offered, “At a certain level, I’m not so infuriated that there are going to be a few hundred kids there. They’ll be mostly transient.”
He mused fatalistically, “How can someone really get angry at a bunch of ballerinas walking around and smoking and not eating? I mean, am I personally going to be offended? No, I’m probably going to enjoy looking at their…faces, and will be smiling at them pirouetting through the streets.”
