The Village Voice: Runnin' Scared

Court Backs East Village 'Dorm for Hire'

posted: 7:18 AM, June 4, 2007 by Sarah Ferguson

So far Singer has stripped off all the dormer windows on the 10th Street side of P.S. 64. He hopes to demolish a lot more.

It looks as if developer Gregg Singer’s proposed 19-story megadorm off Tompkins Square does have a leg to stand on after all.

A Manhattan appeals court ruled 3-2 last week that the city had wrongly denied Singer a permit to raze all but the front façade of the now landmarked P.S. 64 school building on East Ninth Street so he can put up a dormitory tower for 800-plus students. (Read the decision here.)

The Appellate Division reversed rulings by the State Supreme Court and the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals, both of which found that the Department of Buildings was right to reject Singer’s dorm scheme because he has not lined up any schools or universities to lease the space.

The split decision also flies in the face of last year’s vote to landmark the century-old Beaux Arts school—formerly home to the Latino-run community center Charas/El Bohio—after clamorous protests against Singer's so-called “dorm for hire.”

Gabriel Taussig, an attorney for the city, promised a swift appeal, saying, “We believe, in light of the lower court as well as the two dissenting appellate justices supporting us, that we stand a strong likelihood of prevailing.”

Opponents of Singer’s plan fear that if the Court of Appeals upholds the Appellate Division's decision, it could open the door for more supersized buildings across the city.

“Given how common it’s become for developers to build extra-large buildings by claiming they’re community facilities, we’re all in big trouble if this ruling stands,” warns Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

The ruling certainly puts a new spin on the fate of the still empty—and increasingly decrepit—P.S. 64, which Singer bought at auction from the city for $3.15 million in 1998. (“Love It or Level It,” June 13, 2006). Singer declined to return phone calls. But his attorney, Jeffrey Glen, argues that because Singer submitted his dorm permit application before the school was landmarked, that landmarking should be moot.

At the same time, the ruling clears the way for Singer to pursue his $100 million lawsuit against Mayor Bloomberg, the Department of Buildings, the BSA, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission for allegedly colluding to thwart his dorm plan. (City officials dismiss the suit, which had been on hold pending the outcome of this case, as fiction.)

At stake here is whether developers like Singer should be required to prove an “institutional nexus” by having signed leases with participating schools before they are allowed to put up dorms. The city maintains this is necessary to prevent developers from exploiting the community-facility-use zoning “bonus” to build what are in essence oversized apartment buildings.

Though the lower court found the city’s argument “rational,” the notoriously conservative Appellate Division ruled that the city’s refusal to grant Singer a dorm permit constituted an “an impermissible administrative anticipatory punishment." Translation: you can't penalize an owner for violating the zoning unless or until he actually violates it.

Writing for the majority, Associate Justice James M. Catterson argued that if Singer failed to sign up any universities once the dorm goes up, the city could either revoke the building’s certificate of occupancy or sue him for violating the deed. (The deed requires that the property be for "community use," not residential housing.)

That doesn’t sit well with the neighbors. “So if he doesn’t lease it to schools, then what? Is the City going to make him tear it down?” asks Roland Legiardi-Laura, one of four East Village residents who sued Singer to try and stop him from chopping off P.S. 64’s ornate terra-cotta trim. (They lost and Singer chopped.)

“In all this time, he’s never been able to find a legitimate school entity to sign on with him,” Legiardi-Laura continues. “What makes them think he’ll find one now?”

Associate Justice Milton L. Williams also expressed doubts over Singer's intentions, referring in his dissenting opinion to the developer's "dubious and persistent efforts to evade" providing proof of participating schools.

Glenn scoffs at such concerns, insisting that if Singer builds it, the universities will come. “You’ve got students commuting 40 miles to go to school in Manhattan," he says. "The chances of this thing not having an enormous waiting list would be nil.”

categories: Follow-up

Comments

First of all, this story should have been in the printed Voice. It's a big NY story, part of a long-evolving drama about one of our most historic and famous neighborhoods, and up till now the Voice was doing a good job of telling this story. Second, the cutesy wording of the appeals decision is infuriating. We've lost community gardens because the developers defied the law. Once a garden is gone, it's no longer a garden and loses protection as such. Once Singer does his damage to this building, it is also gone. So we're told to wait till that happens?

Posted by: JK Canepa at June 4, 2007 1:21 PM

important update and nyc story, look fwd to continuing reporting in the print edition

Posted by: Harry at June 4, 2007 1:40 PM

Ps 64 represents for our community the struggle to save our city from Speculators and money hungry LandLords. Who put profit before the preservation of social culture art and community. The fact that this Speculator Greg Singer came into our neighborhood to make a buck off the sweat tears and blood of our PR community. Is a sign of the times where greed rules the land. No wonder people around the Golbal community see America as callous cold people without a moral fiber. How can we expect to heal the Global conflicts without addressing the issues here at home that continue to errode our social fabric. If we treat people as a commodity instead of a valuble resource we run the risk of setting a negative example to the world at large. The fact that the Village Voice choose not to publish this article sends a message to our P.R. community that our struggle for social justice is a mere blip on there radar screen. This is why we choose to have our own publications Q. L. In LOISAIDA to cover what we felt was important to our social causes. We never expected any handout from any one. We helped save not only Loisaida but the City as well from the fires drugs and crime that corrupted our city during the 70s, and 80s. Now we are confronted with people like Greg Singer who represent the new world order where people are nothing more than an obstacle for their own selfish arrogant greedy ways. Going against the will of the people and the City is nothing more than arrogance and greed. Wake up people don't you see he's trying to make a killing sueing the City for 100 million. How much is the value of a community? Greg Singer is not and will never be a Robert Moses. A Visionary who bucked the system in order to build a utopia for the immigrant masses. Wanting to build another College dorm in Loisaida is nothing more than his attempt to make another killing. Killing our neighborhood with more Booze and drugs. The people who will benefit from a college dorm will not be the people of the community. It will be people from outside our community. Wheres the benefit for our children? Wheres the benefit for our people seeking self expression through art and music? CHARAS/EL BOHIO served every body with affordable rehearsal space, Art gallery space, Performance space, training programs for our youth etc. Where is the benefit for our community?

Posted by: Alfredo T Irizarry at June 4, 2007 1:56 PM

If it wasn't our beloved CHARAS, I'd almost be in favor of dormatories... it would keep them from moving in and out of our residential buildings every 9 months. Could we corral them, build something like cattle shoots to and from their classes to supplement their Disney Trolly Buses, and maybe build underground tunnels to and from the nightclubs? Ah, but then what about an efficient delivery system for all of the lost and lonely suburban kids who come, trying so desperately to find love from one of them? Does this sound a trifle too hateful, bitter, angry? Sorry, but the sheer numbers of these transients are destroying our community. It is a state of emergency! Time to start thinking outside of the box!

Posted by: anonymous at June 6, 2007 7:34 AM

The Appellate is a court for hire, in the service of the greedy and corrupt. It's no surprise they reinvented the law in Singer's favor. (Can you imagine if the rationale of this decision was applied to the law in general?) However, since the vote was 3-2, even at the Appellate, it seems the City is likely to prevail in an appeal.

The question is, without a reelection to worry about, and with the dynamic and effective Margie Lopez tucked away in the administration, will Bloomberg continue to support a marginal neighborhood, or cut a deal?

Posted by: Edeneweyn at June 6, 2007 10:01 AM

The East Village has been mega dormed to death and the only thing our billionaire mayor and city planner, socialite mega millionaire Amanda Burden have not done is supply trains, buses and nyu trollies to move the rest of the community out for college students as evictions rise and our neighborhood looks like a bad xerox of mid town.
From the community board on up not enough have been done to protect the historic area and the long term community members.

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Posted by: flower desktop picture at September 19, 2007 7:01 AM

I strongly oppose Mr. Singer's project and the appeals court decision is appalling. But Mr. Irizarry's comment above turns this into a racial issue unfairly. No neighborhood in NYC can be said to be a "X" community or a "Y" community. They've all changed. These kinds of comments simply alienate people from the community who would otherwise join the fight against speculators and greedy landlords. It is not ethnicity that makes Mr. Singer bad and it is not ethnicity that makes the neighborhood worth preserving. It is rational understanding of the dangers of unbridled greed and understanding of the the violence caused by gentrification. Please leave the race shit out of this.

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