Battery Park City Life

Take note of the free WiFi availability in areas of 7WTC, Bowling Green, British Memorial Garden, City Hall Park, South Street Seaport, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza, 60 Wall Street Atrium as well as at World Financial Center's Winter Garden. Now you can surf the web, check your email or send instant messages while out and about downtown. Read more about at www.downtownny.com

Did you see or hear some jets fly over Lower Manhattan?  Don't worry, it was a planned aerial mission.  It would be good if they would have notified the people first. 

"In coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Presidential Airlift Group conducted a aerial photo mission in the New York City area on 27 Apr 2009. This mission, involving the VC-25 and an F-16, was conducted in conjunction with normally scheduled continuation training for assigned aircrew members. This mission was coordinated for the Upper New York Bay, south of the Holland Tunnel and in the Newark Bay north of the Staten Island Expressway between the hours of 1000L and 1030L."

The maneuver, part of a photo op, was coordinated in advance with the FAA and state and local officials.

There is a proposal for a Subway Sandwich store in the space previously occupied by the Video Room.  But the Battery Pointe residents and condo board are opposed to having a restaurant in that space because of concerns with garbage, rodents, odors and crowds, which would diminish the value of their apartments. 

The president of the condo board, Douglas Bauer has petitioned the NYS Supreme Court for a temporary restraining order to prevent Ronald Haddad, the owner of the commercial space, from opening the Subway store and from performing any alterations to the space.  They are concerned that opening the restaurant will require extensive work, including puncturing a hole on the side of the building to install ductwork.  They would also need to break into the concrete slab floors to install plumbing, which can compromise the slab.

(From the Broadsheet Daily) 

The Battery Park City Authority has reached a deal with condo owners Tuesday to ease the large fee increases.  They will cap the ground rent increases at 25% and spread that increase over 15 years.  Several buildings were expecting a large increase within the next few years, including the Regatta, Liberty View and the Cove Club.  In April, the condo owners at the 182-unit Regatta would have seen average monthly increase to $2,160 from $840 currently. 

For some time now, the fence surrounding the WTC site has been known as an eye sore, but shortly this will change. The fence will soon begin displaying information to the visitors of ground zero.  Visitors will get an idea of what the future freedom towers and WTC transit hub will look like as well as directions on how to walk the circling 12 blocks of WTC site. Construction progress will be communicated to those who pass by from local residents to tourists.

On Monday, a fire broke out at Picasso Pizza just before lunch.  It began in the back of one of the ovens and went through the vent and duct work to the space above the ceiling.  It quickly spread to the second-level of the Gateway Garage directly over the pizzeria.  Six fire trucks and ambulances were on the scene to put out the fire.  It took about 25 minutes to get it under control and was the fire was out by 12:10 PM.

Picasso Pizza will be closed for some time while repairs will be made. 

Harmony on the Hudson

It was a hot and humid Sunday, but many people came out to enjoy the Harmony on the Hudson Festival in Wagner Park.  This is the 7th annual family music festival, with double dutch jump roping with the Double Ductch Divas, relay and potato sack racing and tug of war.  Tom Chapin and Friends, Lisa Loeb, Brady Rymer and Ebony Hilbillies entertained the crowd with music.

View pictures from the Festival

Construction on the 65-story green hotel/residential (580,000 sq ft)  tower has started. It will have 280 residential units and 155 hotel and retail units.  It will also have a pedestrian passageway that will link the southern part of Battery Park City to the building.  

The  project will create 740 construction jobs and 175 permanent jobs.  The developer, Times Equities, Inc., will donate $4.6 million to the Department of Housing for its affordable housing preservation fund, $350,000 to the NYC Board of Education for Lower East Side Space Sciences Center and $430,000 to P.S./I.S. 89 for a computer science program including computers for a new computer lab.

It anticipates to get the LEED-gold certification when completed, which will include a green roof, water-efficient plunbing fixtures, automated blinds and energy control systems.  The building is estimated to cost $600 million.  Construction should be completed in 2010.

Sheldon Silver hopes to extend Gateway Plaza's rent-stabilization agreements before it expires next summer.  Silver is in talks with  the owner of Gateway Plaza, LeFrak Organization and Battery Park City Authority.  Tenants could see their stabilized rents soar to market rates.

LeFrak has been trying to escape rent stabilization for more than a decade, so they were not eager to sit down with Silver.  LeFrak wants to negotiate their new ground lease earlier than the 2023 review so that they can refinance their mortgage and renovate the 30-year-old buildings. The BPCA told LeFrak that any ground rent deal would have to incldue rent-stabilization and and agreen retrofit.  LeFrak said they did not want to pay for those things.

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