N EW YORK, NY February 04, 2005 —

» The Deputy Mayor and the Olympics

This week, WNYC has been looking at the tensions that arise from have Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Daniel Doctoroff also run the city’s Olympic bid, NYC 2012. Today, WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein looks at a plan to bring new waterfront housing to Red Hook, Brooklyn. Proponents say the housing would bring needed stability to a poor neighborhood, but opponents charge the project was given a green light in part because the developers made a contribution to NYC 2012.

The streets of Red Hook are narrow and cobbled, with old Dutch names like Van Brunt, and Van Dyke. In recent years the maritime neighborhood has experienced a revival. Artists have moved in. And, as is the way in New York City, Red Hook now seems like a great place for luxury waterfront housing.

Batkin: So now you’re in the living room of what will be one of the larger units.

Inside an old warehouse at 160 Imlay Street there’s not much to see. Thick walls and giant columns punctuate the floor. But Developer Bruce Batkin, wearing jeans, sporting a trim gray mustache, sees something else.

Batkin: Here’s where you would have a set of doors going out to that balcony. It’s an interesting adaptive reuse because those balconies were used for fire escape purposes and for hoisting goods into the building and now people will be able to go out there and have a martini.

In a city where having a view is like owning an oil well, these views are gushers. The Statue of Liberty, Governor’s Island, New York Harbor – this is the front yard of 160 Imlay Street.

Batkin: We think from an economic perspective it would be enormously beneficial to Red Hook to have 150 new families move into a building like this who could be spending money at the stores and bodegas right here on Van Brunt Street.

Outside the building on Imlay Street, Tom Russo is getting out of his car and shaking his head. Russo is the President of the Red Hook chamber of commerce. He says this isn’t a neighborhood for luxury condos.

Russo: You know one of the big problems will be, residents move into this building, one of the things people will hear will be beep beep beep beep, these trailer trucks and high-lows right outside their windows.

Russo says if luxury condos come to Imlay Street, industrial rents will go way up. And he says that will drive out businesses.

Russo: The latest count is we have 440 manufacturing businesses not counting the retail stores. There are a lot of food businesses, there are a lot of restaurants, clubs, and it’s a much better quality of life now than it was.

The developers of 160 Imlay Street say when they bought the building, the plan was to use it for commercial purposes. They had a deal with Worldcom, before that company collapsed. But with a hot Brooklyn real estate market, they decided to make it an apartment building. Their only problem: the street isn’t zoned for that.

So they went to Community Board 6. Craig Hammerman is the chair. He says ten years ago, the neighborhood developed a plan, known by a section of the city charter.

Hammerman: And in the Red Hook 197a plan it was very clearly stated: this section of Red Hook should be preserved for manufacturing uses, largely to help with the eroding job base that we’ve seen in manufacturing in general and in Red Hook specifically.

The community board members worried there would be a land use conflict -- that apartment dwellers, unhappy with industrial noises and smells, would complain. By a vote of 32-4, it voted to recommend AGAINST the conversion to apartments.

The developers then went to a little known board -- the Board of Standards and Appeals – to apply for a zoning variance. During hearings, three of four commissioners openly expressed doubt. Commissioner Peter Caliendo spoke at a March, 2003 hearing.

Caliendo: The way I see it right now, the essential character of this neighborhood is permitted manufacturing use. That presents the major problem. .How do you now shoehorn, basically, a luxury condo building into an M zone? Again, the way I see it right now, the character issue can never be met.

The character issue is a requirement that a variance cannot lead to a change in the character of the neighborhood. And it’s one of five standards a property owner must meet to get a zoning variance.

During the course of this process the developers hired George Arzt, an influential lobbyist. Arzt sought, and got, a meeting with the Deputy Mayor for economic development, Daniel Doctoroff. He oversees the Board of Standards and Appeals. George Arzt:

Arzt: You want to do outreach to all the governmental people you may need. You’re seeking friends wherever you can.

Doctoroff’s schedule shows two meetings on this issue, in the summer of 2003.

Arzt: Dan was very non committal at the time. We were hoping in fact to get a better meeting.

In addition to his city duties, Doctoroff also heads NYC 2012, the organization seeking to bring the Olympics to New York. After Doctoroff became Deputy Mayor, the corporate owner of 160 Imlay Street made a $100,000 contribution to NYC 2012. Neither the developers nor NYC 2012 would tell us exactly when the contribution was made – and they don’t have to. Unlike political contributions, there are few disclosure requirements for charities like NYC 2012.

Doctoroff’s spokeswoman said the fundraising and city business are completely separate. She stressed the Board of Standards and Appeals is an independent body, and makes its own decisions.

She says Doctoroff did support the project, and expressed that.

The building fits in with Bloomberg administration’s vision for Red Hook, which includes a cruise ship dock on Pier 11, near Imlay Street. Developer Bruce Batkin.

Batkin: The city does have over the long term some very high aspirations for what they want to do with pier 11 here which would include retail and waterfront recreational uses, so people from the community and elsewhere would be able to access a waterfront that’s been shut off to them for years.

At the Board of Standards and Appeals, the developers made their argument. The Board held a vote two days before Christmas, 2003.

Worker: Happy Holidays Lawyer: Happy Holidays Worker: This case is closed. On a motion to grant: Chairman Chin. No. Vice Chairman Babbar Aye; Commissioner Caliendo, Aye; Commissioner Miele; Aye.

The Board voted to approve the project 3-1 despite the doubts expressed during the hearings. The developers say the vote was expected – that in the course of the hearings, they’d answered all of the questions the board members had raised. But Community Board Six’s Craig Hammerman said he couldn’t remember a time when the Board had gone so blatantly against the community board’s wishes.

Hammerman: It caught many of us by surprise, to say the least. It certainly sent shock and awe through many of people in the Red Hook community.

There are Red Hook businesses who support the new housing, particularly the restaurants and shops along Van Brunt Street. The owners of those businesses have been waiting a long time for this still poor neighborhood to take off. But the Red Hook Chamber of Commerce sued, saying the decision was “arbitrary and capricious.” In December of 2004, a judge said there was enough evidence to put construction on hold. In its court papers, the plaintiffs argued the meetings with Doctoroff and the contribution to NYC 2012 wrongly influenced the process. Supporters of the development say the lawsuit is funded by rival developers who want control of the building for themselves. And Batkin says talking about the contribution to the Olympic bid is spurious.

Batkin: We are big supporters of 2012 I think if you look at the list businesses who have contributed to 2012 its enormous because we all stand to benefit from having the economic benefits of having the Olympics here. We give to many politicians and to many good causes.

Meanwhile, 160 Imlay Street stands shrouded in black protective netting, while the question of whether the zoning variance was proper works its way through the courts. For WNYC, I’m Andrea Bernstein

This story was reported with Tom Robbins of the Village Voice. Kate Hinds was the researcher.

» To hear the complete series "The Deputy Mayor and the Olympics," click here.

Related Stories:

» No Olympics Yet, but Two World's Fairs
by Fred Mogul, November 4, 2004
» Atlanta's 'Olympic legacy' Holds Lessons for NYC
by Fred Mogul, July 12, 2004
» Stadium At Center of NYC Olympic Bid
by Fred Mogul, May 24, 2004
» It Takes an Olympic Village
by Fred Mogul, July 15, 2003

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Links:

» Tom Robbins' story in The Village Voice
» The NYC2012 website