Children and adults rallied at North Cove Marina Dec. 15 in an effort to keep the current community sailing programs.
BY JOSH ROGERS and DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | Michael Fortenbaugh, North Cove’s commodore for the last two decades, will have to turn over his keys to the Battery Park City marina by Dec. 31, and it looks like his youth and adult sailing programs will not be able to return this season.
The Battery Park City Authority in essence fired a warning shot across the bow Dec. 4, when it didn’t take a vote on whether Fortenbaugh or someone else would be running the marina the next 10 years. It left him in limbo, unable to hire sailing instructors or invite international sailing clubs to visit this summer.
“They’re all anxious, everybody there, their whole livelihoods,” Fortenbaugh said of his core group of 10 workers after the meeting. “It’s been so stressful the last few months getting up to this point. To continue all the way through January is going to be the worst holiday present you can get… This keeps you up at night.”
A week later he didn’t get any certainty, but he was given less hope when the authority said it would take control of the marina from him at the end of the month, but offered him a 60-day temporary agreement to stay at a discounted rate.
A new group, the Committee to Save North Cove, formed a few days later and a few hundred of them rallied Monday night in support of Fortenabugh’s programs.
One was Izzy Meltzer, 8, who took up sailing for the first time last year.
North Cove Marina Dec. 15, above and bottom. Michael Fortenbaugh, right, the marina’s leader at least until Dec. 31.
“I think it was awesome,” said Meltzer, who was excited to learn about the different types of rope knots.
Her mother, Tribeca resident Margaret Wiesendanger, said “I think it is an amazing resource for the community.” Wiesendanger said her son was also a part of the sailing school and the family looks forward to it every year.
Authority officials insist Fortenbaugh’s North Cove Marina Management company is not being evicted, but he told Downtown Express that the most likely explanation is that the authority is about to award the next contract to someone else.
“It doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy feeling,” he said last week. “It’s not a good sign.”
He said there has been “zero discussion” with the authority clarifying his bid, which also leads him to think the authority has picked a different operator.
At the Dec. 15 rally Fortenbaugh said, “I’ve created kids programs not because they were in an R.F.P. I created them because I believed in this,” he said, referring to a request for proposals.
Sailing club member David Simson, who carried a red sign with the slogan “Save Sailing at North Cove,” said this was his first protest ever. He said the club is the best deal at $1,200 a year.
“If you make it all mega yachts, all you’re doing is emphasizing income inequality,” he said. “It really is sailing for the people.
Fortenbaugh moved to Battery Park City in 1994 and brought the sailing school and club to the neighborhood. He began running the marina 10 years ago.
“After 9/11 happened, I made a commitment to myself that I was going to be part of the rebuilding process,” he told the crowd.
After the terrorist attack across his street, many of his neighbors moved away because of the trauma, concerns about the air quality or because their homes were not reopened for months. Fortenbaugh, who was among a large group of residents who stepped forward to help rebuild Downtown’s community, staged a march of neighborhood children as a morale booster a few months later.
In May 2002, the sailing school and club were back.
The B.P.C.A. board did not act two weeks ago because two members could not vote. Martha Gallo recused herself and Dennis Mehiel, the authority’s chairperson, was out of the country on unrelated business, but had he attended the meeting by Skype or video conference, the authority would have had enough members to vote.
Gallo, the only neighborhood resident on the board, told Downtown Express Dec. 4 that her decision was “clear cut” because she is a member of Fortenbaugh’s sailing club, has a boat in the marina, and had contributed to his foundation. She said she had made her decision a few days prior, which presumably was when the board received the recommendation for the next 10-year contract from staff.
There appears to be three other bidders: Brookfield Office Properties, which owns the World Financial Center (now officially Brookfield Place) which overlooks the marina, Suntex, and Edgewater Resources.
Island Global Yachting, whose chairperson is Andrew Farkas, is working with Brookfield, the New York Times reported Dec. 16.
Farkas is a large campaign contributor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who appoints all Battery Park City Authority board members. This has led local blogs and others to suggest that Brookfield and Island Global are the likely winners.
The Times reported that Cuomo’s office released a statement to the paper saying the office had “zero input” on the contract, although Cuomo spokespersons did not confirm the quote to Downtown Express.
Fortenbaugh said Wednesday that all of the bidders had to commit to a sailing school for youth and adults but one of the dangers is that others will “jack up the prices” if they don’t have a community focus.
He said he had been paying the authority $300,000 a year but agreed to increase it to $400,000. He said his organization made $1.4 million last year.
The authority did not answer questions on the matter, but in a prepared statement said since Fortenbaugh’s contract does not have an extension provision, it “will assume operation of the marina, including all maintenance and insurance costs, on 1/1/15. To provide for continued operation of the Manhattan Sailing School and Yacht Club until there is a board decision on the R.F.P., B.P.C.A. has offered a 60 day lease… at a substantially discounted per foot rate for any boats.”
Fortenbaugh said given all of the delays, 60 days is not enough time to find a new place for the sailing club this season and he is hoping that if he is asked to leave, the harm would be repaired. Presumably that would mean allowing him to stay through the summer or financial compensation, but he did not say.
He has received a lot of local political support. Jenifer Rajkumar, a Democratic district leader, attended the rally, and other pols have written him letters of praise, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who without recommending a winning bidder, has hailed Fortenbaugh’s community work.
The speaker has not contacted the authority directly though. In the past he has used his influence on the state’s Public Authorities Control Board to exert pressure on the B.P.C.A. on neighborhood issues, but in a statement to Downtown Express, Silver indicated he is not permitted to repeat his public comments directly to the authority.
“As I have said in the past, Michael Fortenbaugh has done an outstanding job running North Cove Marina and the programs he runs provide great benefit to our community,” Silver said. “When it comes to issues of state government procurement, it is not permissible for state officials to attempt to direct the outcome.”
The authority expects to vote on the matter sometime in January.
