Preservationists Continue Push Against Tech Hub Approval

GRAMERCY, NY — Critics have continued their push against City Council's unanimous approval of the Union Square Tech Center more than a week after the vote with a side-by-side comparison of land use protections preservationists demanded and the limited measures the deal brokered.

Local Councilwoman Carlina Rivera voted to approve the 21-story tech hub on 14th Street at Irving Place and the rezoning needed to erect the glass tower on Aug. 9. The councilwoman advocated for land use protections to accompany the plan, looking to shield the area from hyper development, but she was unable to solidify sweeping protections and instead delivered a handful of measures aimed at preserving the neighborhood.

On Monday, she called on the city's Department of Planning to establish a special permit for hotel development rising in the section south of Union Square from Third Avenue to University Place.

Executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman, panned the plan calling it "theater" and akin to "firing a starting gun to developers" looking to build hotels in the area before the special permit process is instated.

Come Friday, the Greenwich Village Society released "A Tale of Two Tech Hub" chart, spelling out the protections neighborhood groups requested and noting specific areas where the final plan fell short of those goals with the project's Aug. 9 approval.

Aside from the proposal looking to limit hotel development south of the Union Square Tech Center, Rivera negotiated with the city for the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider seven Broadway properties, a “tenant protection campaign” run by the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development in the area south of the center to “ensure that tenants in rent-stabilized buildings know their rights and spot the signs of tenant harassment” and resources from the city to help protect the Merchant House, where a hotel development next door threatens the building, according to an open letter Rivera penned to her district.

Berman called the efforts a "pale shadow" of what Rivera pledged to deliver the communities surrounding the tech hub.

"Councilmember Rivera broke her promise to the community," Berman wrote in a statement. "Trying to pass off flimsy measures with little effect as the protections this community fought for won’t change that.”

Lead image courtesy of the Economic Development Cooperation, chart courtesy of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation