Lower Manhattan CB Wants Updates On A Promised Plaza In Tribeca

TRIBECA, NY — A concrete triangle nestled between Sixth Avenue, White Street and Church Street was expected to become a lush plaza — fit with benches, a handful of trees and greenery, according to renderings from previous news reports back in 2014.

The concrete slab — dubbed the Barnett Newman Triangle — was to be remade into a public plaza by the developer DDG as a giveback to the neighborhood amid a fight over the design of new condo building at 100 Franklin St. in the Tribeca East Historic District.

But since then, Community Board 1 says the developer has not provided any updates at board meetings — irking Lower Manhattanites.

"The community [board] has made countless efforts," Paul Goldstein, the chair of CB 1's parks committee, said at the May 28 CB 1 meeting. "We've had very little success."

CB 1 has been asking DDG for more than a year to update the neighborhood on the plaza upgrades, the board wrote in a resolution passed May 28.

But, "DDG has not been willing to attend any meeting thus far and we remain in the dark as to their plans" for the plaza, the board wrote in the resolution.

The promised plaza was documented in a November 2014 CB 1 resolution as well as reports from Tribeca Citizen and Curbed — which reported DDG was in talks with the Department of Transportation to build out the plaza.

"It was recognized that they made this promise to the community, so the resolution before you is just saying, 'Hey, we want to move forward with this [and discuss it],'" Goldstein told board members.

DDG said its focus is finishing the two buildings at 100 Franklin St. — developments that sparked contentious debates at the time over a zoning variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals, which was ultimately granted in 2015.

A spokeswoman for DDG said by email, "We were in touch with Community Board 1 a few months ago to let them know that our current focus is on completing construction of these two complex buildings, which are steadily progressing towards completion." DDG did not answer questions on the plans for a public plaza.

A Department of Transportation spokeswoman confirmed DDG applied to the department's plaza program in 2014 and was accepted under the developer's commitment to fund and maintain the plaza.

DOT is waiting to move ahead, pending the project's funding, the DOT spokeswoman said.

For Alex Lloyd, who lives in a building on White Street where artist Barnett Newman's former studio was located, said some additional greenery would make the neighborhood feel more "human-friendly."

DDG's construction resulted in "magnificent" trees tucked in an ally being ripped out of the ground, Lloyd recalled. He wasn't among neighbors opposed to the new building, per se, but he hopes DDG follows through on the plaza.

"This neighborhood is beautiful, but has a real dearth of greenery and green space until you get to the river," said Lloyd, an engineer who's lived in Tribeca for six years.