Both Sides Make Their Case at Public Hearing on Pier 40 Development

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Nothing ignites passions like an historic New York district about to be transformed into a massive, shiny development. Dozens of people lined up at City Planning Commission headquarters Wednesday afternoon to testify in front of the CPC on the plan for developers to buy the air rights to Pier 40 in Hudson Square.

The plan would allow the developers of a giant project at the site of St. John's Terminal to build their vision, while the Hudson River Park Trust could use the money acquired through selling the air rights to repair the pier for neighborhood members.

The $100 million price tag on the 200,000 square feet of air rights attached to Pier 40 is sufficient for needed repairs to the pier, according to the Hudson River Park Trust's testimony Wednesday.

The city and the St. John's Terminal project developers, Atlas Capital Group and Westbrook Partners, announced a plan late last year for 550 Washington St. in which the air rights they bought for $100 million would be used to build a 2 million-square-foot complex with retail, 80,000 units of affordable housing, condos and possibly a hotel.

Hudson River Park Trust desperately needs the $100 million for repairs to the park, said Tony Simone, external affairs director for Friends of Hudson River Park, the nonprofit wing of the Trust.

"On Pier 40, we have dozens and dozens of fields, where over tens of thousands of field users play. Adult users, children users..." Simone said. "Parents I've spoken to say they would move to the suburbs if not for Hudson River Park and Pier 40."

The money is needed for repairs to the underwater piles that support the pier, said Trust president and CEO Madelyn Wils.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation presented several pieces of testimony Wednesday afternoon to the CPC in which they put forth a list of demands they said were necessary if the air rights were to be sold to the developers.

They demanded that the South Village Historic District, the 11 blocks south of Houston Street between Sixth Avenue and West Broadway, be designated a historic landmark. Second, they demanded the Hudson River Park Special District put forth limits on selling any future air rights. And third, they demanded all "big box stores and destination retail" be sacrificed for just local retail in the new development.

"There is no denying that the requested approvals would be wildly beneficial to this developer, while what the public gets in return is relatively paltry by comparison," the GVSHP said in its testimony.

The hearing was the latest step in the Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP), a process necessary when there are pending zoning changes. The site isn't yet zoned for residential. After the ULURP is over, the Trust votes on the air rights sale, and it will then hold another public hearing.

All images by Sarah Kaufman/Patch