By Albert Amateau
Community Board 2 last month gave a vote of confidence to the proposed Hudson Sq. Business Improvement District in the mixed industrial and residential district roughly between Morton and Canal Sts. from West St. to an irregular boundary west of Varick St.
But some industrial property owners in the north portion of the district say they are determined to fight the formation of the Business Improvement District.
BIDs, supervised by the Department of Business Services, are intended to supplement municipal services like sanitation, street lighting and security. Funded by a surtax on assessed valuation, BIDs require the participation of at least 51 percent of the property-owners representing 51 percent of the assessed valuation.
The community board’s Nov. 20 resolution to support the formation of the Hudson Sq. BID said the BID had the agreement of property-owners representing 70 percent of assessed valuation.
However, only about 20 percent of the total owners listed on the city tax rolls had agreed by the end of last week to participate in the BID, according to John Franqui, an executive of Trinity Real Estate and head of the BID steering committee. Franqui pointed out that 60 percent of the 450 tax-lot owners in the district were residential condominium owners and will only have to pay one dollar per condo a year
Moreover, Lisa LaFrieda, a community board member and an owner of LaFrieda Meats, a wholesale meat business on Leroy and Washington Sts., said there is considerable opposition among neighboring small businesses in the north end of the district.
“Fifty percent of the commercial property owners around here didn’t receive any notice of the BID and I don’t think people at the community board knew what they’re voting for,” said LaFrieda, who contended that the proposed BID would mainly serve the interests of the biggest property owners. “We don’t need any of the improvements that would help them.”
Major property owners, including Trinity Real Estate, which has more than a quarter of the total building square footage in the district, are heavily represented on the BID committee. Executives with Ponte Equities, Newmark, Williams, Tishman Speyer Realty, Jack Resnick & Sons, Edison Properties and United Parcel Service are also on the steering committee.
Nevertheless, David Reck, a community board member who owns a four-story building in the southern part of the district where he lives and conducts his architectural practice, is also on the BID steering committee and is a strong advocate of the business district.
C.B.2 endorsed the BID after Rusty Moore, the district’s consultant, and Franqui asked the board to consider the matter early.
Franqui said that he had no response from the 185 residential condo owners in the Printing House Apartments on Hudson St. between Leroy and Clarkson Sts., but he intends to meet with the condo board this week.
At a BID steering committee meeting in May, a tentative first year budget was estimated at $520,000, which would cost commercial property-owners 4.5 cents per sq. ft. each year. The largest buildings in the district are about one million square feet and the owner of such a commercial building would pay $45,000 annually. But under the Department of Business Services rules, residential owners pay a nominal fee of a dollar a year. The district also has several small three and four-story buildings of 4,000 sq. ft. or less.
Property-owners and D.B.S. have been discussing the Hudson Sq. BID for a year and a half, but the formal approval process has not begun. The Nov. 20 Community Board 2 vote of confidence in the BID — 21 in favor, four against and four abstentions — two of them for cause – was preliminary.
Franqui said he hopes to begin the formal process in the next week or so when he submits the BID plan and documents to support it, to the Department of Business Services.
The process requires a written pre-notice to property owners and must then follow the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. The Department of City Planning certifies the plan and the community board has a 30-day review period with a public hearing. A 60-day review period and another public hearing by City Planning comes next, followed by a vote in the City Council. If approved, a formal BID notice goes to property-owners with a schedule of assessments. Property-owners then may file objections.
The neighborhood formerly dominated by warehouses and printing industry uses has become more residential in recent years. Two residential complexes, one 14 stories and the other 11 stories, are nearing completion in the proposed district on Greenwich St. between Canal and Spring Sts. Nino Vendome is planning another residential tower, designed by the famed architect Philip Johnson, on Spring and Washington Sts., also in the proposed BID.
In August, the southern part of the district between Canal and Spring St. from Washington to Hudson Sts. was rezoned from manufacturing to allow new residential development and conversions. The new zoning allows existing manufacturing to continue but bars new manufacturing development and imposes a 120-ft. height limit on new construction. A zoning proposal to allow both residential and industrial development in the northern manufacturing zone around Morton and Leroy Streets was defeated in August.
Albert@DowntownExpress.com
