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Having wrapped up six months of informal conversations with the community about plans for two to four residential towers on Broadway at W. 190th Street, the developer will begin working with the Department of City Planning to submit an application in the fall. As proposed the towers would be taller than the apartments on top of Wadsworth Terrace behind the site. PHOTO: Mike Fitelson
On the eve of beginning conversations with the Department of City Planning and after six months of informal meetings with community and elected leaders, the developers who are planning to build two to four high rise apartments on Broadway at W. 190th Street met with a Community Board 12 committee last week in hopes of garnering backing for the project.
They received little that could be considered encouragement for a plan that could result in a 40-story residential tower that would be taller than every other area building and would not be affordable for the majority of local residents.
Meeting with the CB12 Land Use Committee on Wed., July 7th, Quadriad Realty Partners shared its updated plans, altered somewhat over the months based on community input.
The committee didn’t offer a resolution on the matter, but chair Wayne Benjamin read a prepared list of six suggestions that the committee had discussed internally, revealing its concerns at this stage of the project.
Those comments encouraged the developer to revise the plans so the project would be more in scale and character with the existing housing and retail corridor, particularly reducing the overall height, and explore how government programs could finance housing that would be affordable based on local income levels.
This last point strikes at the heart of what Quadriad calls its “New Strategy” approach to building middle income housing without using public money. Quadriad CEO Henry Wollman has several projects underway throughout the city that leverage a critical mass of market rate units to also build lower priced units.
In the case of the “New Strategy” Washington Heights proposal, it would yield about 800 total units, 180 of which would be set aside for middle class incomes. The project would also redirect the pedestrian tunnel from the 1-train station to Broadway and create 30,000 square feet of public green space, commercial space, and 50,000 square feet of community space.
Wollman said the community facility could include a mix of services including medical, early childhood, senior care, and art and library facilities. When questioned, Wollman said he had reached out to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital about possibly using the space. But Helen Morik, the hospital’s vice president of government and community affairs and a member of Community Board 12, said no substantive conversations had taken place. Steve Simon, a committee member, said he was still waiting on information Wollman had promised months ago.
To build the New Strategy towers, which, as planned, would either result in three towers between 23 and 40 stories or two that are each 28 stories tall, Quadriad needs city approval for several zoning changes.
But Quadriad could also simply build a 28-story tower on the site that conforms with current zoning. Under any scenario, phase two of the project could include an approximately 23-story tower west of Broadway where Ortiz Funeral Home is.
Wollman said he has the investors in place to acquire the site, but needs to break ground by the end of 2012 to ensure his financing.
Wollman has said that the site, bordering Broadway, Fairview Avenue, and Gorman Park, is attractive because it has a large enough footprint to build dense housing and great access to public transportation.
That is exactly what concerned the 20 or so residents and CB12 members who attended the meeting.
If 800 new units of housing are occupied, said area resident Rita Gorman, the hundreds of additional passengers would create a “subway ride from hell.”
Paul Rubenfarb, a painter and occasional writer who lives on Wadsworth Terrace, has been distributing fliers opposing the project. He said he didn’t oppose the new condos that opened on his street earlier this year because they are the same height as other area residential buildings, but he objects to the Quadriad project because of its scale.
The towers would destroy what he calls Northern Manhattan’s “scenic tourist economy” and tarnish the views of the Hudson River and Cloisters from his apartment.
Rubenfarb, and other area residents, are meeting with City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez on July 26th to discuss issues related to the project.
In a phone call Thursday, Rodriguez said that he opposes the project because the apartments would not be affordable for local residents. He has met with the Mayor’s office and the City’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development to discuss how the city could invest in the project to make the units more affordable for a community where the median household income for all of Community Board 12 is $37,192, according to the 2007-2009 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimate.
Rodriguez noted that since Mayor Bloomberg was elected, only one building with affordable housing had been built in Northern Manhattan, at W. 204th Street and Nagle Avenue.
One community suggestion Wollman said he was still considering was the towers’ mix of apartments. As first proposed, they would be 30 percent studios, 40 percent one bedrooms, and 30 percent two and three bedrooms. But after watching the local market for a half year, including the number of larger units that have rented at the new Hudson192 building on Broadway a couple of blocks north of the project, Wollman said Wednesday that the ratio could change to include more family-sized apartments.
Wollman hopes to have City Planning certify the application for the New Strategy project in the fall. After that, Community Board 12 will have 60 days to comment. Then the borough president will have 30 days for review, followed by final approvals from City Planning, City Council, and the Mayor’s office.
Fewer approvals, and community input, would be necessary for the as-of-right plan for just two towers.
The CB12 Land Use Committee was originally scheduled to discuss the Quadriad project in June but there wasn’t time during that meeting, which is why a special meeting was held in July.
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