Volume 20 Issue 4 | june 15 – 21, 2007
Under Cover
Chase caught JPMorgan Chase will announce Thursday morning that they have made a deal to move to the Tower 5 site at the World Trade Center site, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver told UnderCover Wednesday.
“This will guarantee that Lower Manhattan will remain the financial capital of the world for the next 50 years at least,” Silver said, pointing out that Chase will be near the Goldman Sachs headquarters now being built across from the W.T.C.
Neighbors have been worried that Chase’s reported plan to build a cantilevered trading floor to overhang near the park on Liberty St. will cast shadows of the building. “I think the design will be sensitive to the community,” Silver said.
He said in addition to the state financial incentives available to firms under Silver’s “Marshall Plan” package, Chase will also get low-cost power under a deal worked out with the Empire State Development Corp. The Port Authority will own the building.
Silver will join Jamie Dimon, Chase C.E.O. and chairperson, and Gov. Eliot Spitzer at the announcement June 14.
Cooley leaves B.P. Community Board 1 will be losing a familiar face June 15 when Mary Cooley, the Lower Manhattan liaison for Borough President Scott Stringer, will be stepping away from her post. Cooley is leaving to become the chief of staff for state Assemblymember Brian Kavanaugh, who represents much of Manhattan’s east side.
Cooley represents Stringer at nearly every C.B. 1 meeting. She has been a favorite of the board for her sunny demeanor and knowledgeable responses. When Cooley announced her departure at the June 5 Battery Park City Committee meeting, several board members and Battery Park City Authority spokesperson Leticia Remauro all protested.
“He should have offered you $100,000 more to stay!” said committee chairperson Linda Belfer.
Soho flavor New Yorkers often talk about the unique “flavor” of their neighborhoods. Now, an Astoria-based ice cream company is taking that expression literally. 5 Boroughs Ice Cream makes neighborhood-themed flavors like “Upper East Side Rich White Vanilla” and “South Bronx Cha Cha Chocolate.”
For Soho, the company has created a cappuccino ice cream with biscotti chunks and chocolate covered espresso beans. Both Gourmet Garage and Vintage wine bar on Broome St. carry pints of 5 Boroughs, so folks can enjoy that Soho flavor right in the neighborhood.
But other Downtown areas need not feel left out. 5 Boroughs continues to accept flavor suggestions and according to the shopping news service Daily Candy, a “Wall Street Mint” may be on the way sometime soon.
Downtown delays The project of installing a new ferry terminal in Battery Park City has said farewell to yet another deadline. Last November, the Port Authority said that the long-delayed permanent terminal would open across from the World Financial Center in March or April of 2007.
Now the Port is saying that the terminal barge, which is being fabricated off site, will not come to B.P.C. until at least October. For Downtown parents that means another summer of ferry fumes in front of Rockefeller Park. For ferry travelers, it means several more months until they can enjoy the improved amenities — bathrooms, climate control and concessions — that the new terminal will offer. According to the Port, the delays have been caused by contractor disputes and a complex welding process.
Originally estimated at $48 million, the ferry project is now expected to cost $69.1 million. On the positive side, the new barge has at least been moved to Brooklyn from its original workshop in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Elsewhere Downtown, the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center may be drifting even further into the future. At a June 11 C.B. 1 meeting, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation President David Emil said that due to constraints on the PAC site, it would be “optimistic” for the project to begin construction as soon as 2011. Emil, an ardent supporter of the arts, called the news depressing.
