Lobbyists Got $300K To Push For Union Square Tech Hub

GRAMERCY, NY — A developer partnering with the city to build the recently approved Union Square Tech Training Center spent nearly $300,000 on lobbying to push the project forward — tens of thousands more than a pair of developers spent on lobbying to rezone the entire neighborhood of Inwood.

The city's Economic Development Corporation and RAL Development Services LLC sought a rezoning for the 240,000-square-foot Tech Training Center at East 14th Street near Irving Place that will offer services to help New Yorkers kick start careers in the tech industry. The City Council approved the $250 million project on Aug. 8.

RAL Development spent more than $175,000 in 2017 and just shy of $47,000 in 2018 to have legal firm Herrick, Feinstein LLP push for the zoning amendment and permits necessary to build the 21-story tech hub beyond what existing zoning allowed, city lobbying records show.

The lobbying targeted the Department of City Planning, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and the district's City Council member, which was Rosie Mendez in 2017 and Carlina Rivera in 2018.

The real estate company, helmed by Robert Levine, also hired James F. Capalino & Associates, Inc. to advocate for the tech hub and to push for a development at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. RAL spent $40,000 in 2017 and $30,000 in 2018 for the firm to push for both projects, city records show.

The lobbying focused on Economic Development Corporation officials, the Manhattan Borough President’s office, Councilwoman Carlina Rivera’s office — once she was elected — and the District Manager of Manhattan’s Community Board 3, Susan Stetzer.

Similarly, two developers slated to build housing in Inwood paid lobbyists more than $200,000 to push for the Inwood rezoning plan, which will rezone 59 blocks north of Dyckman Street to increase density and allow for higher development along 10th Avenue. The neighborhood rezoning also passed the City Council on Aug. 8.

RAL Development did not initially respond to requests for comment from Patch about its lobbying efforts for the project, where non-profit Civic Hall will run a digital skills center.

In a statement sent to Patch after this story published, a representative for RAL Development noted the complexity of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP, process the tech center went through and said Herrick, Feinstein LLC did not engage in lobbying despite city records indicating otherwise.

"A ULURP application requires expertise in many disciplines, including environmental, traffic, geotechnical, legal, and public affairs. The lump sum amount reported inaccurately exaggerates lobbying expenditures," said Francisco Miranda, a representative for RAL Development.

"Herrick Feinstein served as our zoning counsel, and as the law firm preparing the ULURP application was required to register as a lobbyist, but did not serve in a lobbying capacity," Miranda's statement continued.

"Capalino+Company is on regular retainer with RAL for business development and community relations expertise for multiple projects, including 14th Street," Miranda added. "We incurred ordinary course professional fees for a successful application with broad public support."

The Tech Training Center was proposed by the de Blasio administration as part of the "New York Works" plan and is anticipated to create more than 600 jobs, according to the Economic Development Corporation.

Robert Levine's real estate firm is behind several luxury apartment, condominium and resort developments across the city and country, including One Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn Heights, Loft 25 in Chelsea and 270 Broadway in Tribeca.

In 2015, Levine donated $10,000 to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit that promoted de Blasio's political agenda but shuttered in 2016. He told Politico that he made the donation because he supports the administration's universal pre-kindergarten initiative.

The swell of spending to lobby the project comes as no surprise to the head of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has long-held the belief that the project's up-zoning will transform the neighborhoods surrounding Union Square into a hodgepodge of out-of-character towers.

"The developer didn’t spent $300,000 in lobbying because they are a good Samaritan, they did it because it’s a good deal," said Andrew Berman. "They did it because it would give them access to incredibly valuable public land."

Area preservationists urged Councilwoman Rivera to secure land-use protections with the project's approval, which would have been an unusual city concession for a single construction. The final plan did not include sweeping protections, but Rivera negotiated with builders for a measure to regulate hotel development south of the project, for the city to potentially landmark up to seven Broadway properties and secured commitments for the community from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Housing, Preservation and Development agency.

The councilwoman has expressed reservations about the plan, but ultimately voted to approve the project.

"In the end, I recognized that walking away would not only leave our community without a top-flight tech training enter, but also without a single neighborhood protection," said Rivera in an open letter to her district. "Voting no meant we would still get a tall, glass office building and the same threats of overdevelopment."

Rivera held four in-person meetings with RAL Development over the course of her office's eight month negotiation. The meetings also included representatives from the Economic Development Cooperation, the Council's Land Use Division and Civic Hall, according to Jeremy Unger, a spokesman for Rivera.

"These stakeholder meetings were used to help extract multiple concessions from the delegation as part of the negotiations," Unger said in a statement to Patch. "We’re not going to judge how or why RAL decided to spend $77,000 if it was just to help set up a handful of meetings with our office, but if that was the case it’s obviously their prerogative to do so."

Since the tech center's approval, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation sent an Aug. 17 letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, asking the agency consider instating a historic district for a swath of land south of Union Square.

"This important piece of New York’s history and heritage is now endangered, and requires the Commission’s
immediate attention," wrote Berman in the letter. "The increasing development pressure which this area faces makes the need to do so extremely urgent."

Lead image courtesy of the Economic Development Cooperation