Controversy Swirling Around Newtown Creek Boathouse - Public Funds Going To Build Private Hotel?

The North Brooklyn Boat Club is proposing to build The Greenpoint Boathouse and Environmental Education Center at a new location owned by Broadway Stages in a building which will house a small private "hotel" for company employees.  Broadway Stages president Gina Argento said she plans to split the cost of the entire hotel project, which will include about half a dozen hotel rooms, down the middle with the boathouse. 

Just how much is the boathouse supposed to cost now? Queens Crap points out that the original cost estimate for the project was $ 3 million dollars which left more than half of the settlement for other projects.  The City Parks Foundation (CPF) is overseeing $ 7 million dollars from the Newtown Creek Environmental Benefit Project Fund and is getting 10 % of the funds. 

It appears now that all of the funds could be used to build the controversial boathouse.

The project was orignally approved at the site of the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center at 1155 Manhattan Avenue but that deal quietly feel through.   

All projects were supposed to be off the ground by February 18th, 2014, within five years of the MOU, but that is happening.  

The City Parks Foundation has quietly asked for an extension of the deadline for the boathouse.

"It is not fair that this project, which has been drastically altered from its original plans, gets an extension, while other projects which have been ready to go the entire time are told to continue waiting in line indefinitely," said Christina Wilkinson, head of the Newtown Historical Society.

The City's Department of Health and Environmental Protection fought against awarding the funds for the boathouse along Newtown Creek due to heath concerns over kayaking 

on a federal Superfund site. 

Three months later however State officials overruled the concerns of the two agencies responsible for public health and the environment and approved the  $3-million boathouse and education center.   

In April 2010, the NY State DEC selected three organizations to administer Environmental Benefits Projects (EBP):  City Parks Foundation (CPF) received $7 million; New York State Energy, Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) received $2 million; and Hudson River Foundation (HRF) received $1 million.   

- Geoffrey Croft

Brooklyn

It's not just the pollution that stinks along Newtown Creek.

Local activists are crying foul over what they say is a plan to use public money to build a boathouse inside a proposed four-story hotel at 51 Ash St. in Greenpoint, on the banks of the Superfund site, according to the New York  Daily News.  

The Greenpoint Boathouse and Environmental Education Center, a volunteer group that sends canoes and kayaks down the waterway dividing Queens and Brooklyn, was awarded $3 million from the state in 2011.


Not Happening.   The project was approved for the site of the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center at 1155 Manhattan Avenue.  Apparently there were even some GWAAP board members who were not aware of the major changes to the project.  


“It’s beyond sketchy,” Geoffrey Croft, executive director of NYC Park Advocates, said of the plan to use public funds to help build a for-profit enterprise, which was selected in 2011 and recently turned up on two local blogs, Curbed and Queens Crap. 

“No money from the city should go for a private hotel.”

The state awarded the money to the nonprofit boathouse in 2011, from a $10 million fine levied against the city for missing a deadline to improve the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. It was supposed to be based at the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, but the 250-member group couldn’t come to a lease agreement. 

Instead, it took up Broadway Stage’s offer to move into a series of shipping containers along the creek on land owned by the production facilities company.  


The original cost estimate for the Greenpoint Boathouse and Environmental Education Center was $ 3 million dollars which left more than half for other projects. (image: Queens Crap.  http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2014/01/something-reeks-in-greenpoint-besides.html



Broadway Stages is now seeking zoning approval to build a private hotel on the site that would also include a two-story boathouse and community center.

“There’s absolutely no conflict of interest,” said Dewey Thompson, co-president of the North Brooklyn Boat Club. The club runs the boathouse at the mouth of the creek, near the East River. 

“The grant money is going specifically and only to building the community boathouse facility within the commercial structure,” he said. 



The North Brooklyn Boat Club in Greenpoint.


State Department of Environmental Conservation officials also said the money will be used for the boathouse, not for the hotel, and said the City Parks Foundation requested an extension for the project completion deadline, which was to expire on Feb. 18. 

But Broadway Stages president Gina Argento told a different story, saying she plans to split the cost of the entire project, which will include about half a dozen hotel rooms, down the middle with the boathouse.

“Nothing is final yet,” said Argento, who has also been identified as an investor in the controversial Knockdown Center event space in Maspeth.    

RELATED: BOATHOUSE FOUNDER IN HOT WATER


The North Brooklyn Boat Club in Greenpoint.   (Photo: Pearl Gabel/New York Daily News)

The City Parks Foundation would not comment. The city and state Health Departments and city Department of Environmental Protection did not return calls and emails.  

Local activists, however, say the plans should be re-evaluated. 

“The project that was approved is not what they are now proposing to do,” said Christina Wilkinson, president of the Newtown Historical Society. 

She also questioned the safety of boating on the polluted creek. 

“It’s ridiculous that a so-called environmental organization is promoting recreation on Newtown Creek,” she said. 

The waterway is one of the most polluted in the country, according to Environmental Protection Agency officials. 

In heavy rains, raw sewage and water ends up in the creek, said Queens College microbiologist Eli Dueker, who has studied the site. That’s in addition to the millions of gallons of oil that would up in the water. 

“There’s definitely an ‘eww’ factor,” said Dueker, though he admitted he understood the appeal of boating on the waterway. But “much of Newtown Creek is actually quite beautiful.”  

Read More:

Critics slam plan they say would use public funds to build boathouse in private hotel
New York Daily News - February 1, 2014 - By Clare Trapasso

What's Going On With Greenpoint's Newtown Creek Boathouse? 

Curbed - January 30, 2014, by Jessica Dailey

Something reeks at Newtown Creek (and it isn't the water)!

Queens Crap -  January 30, 2014  

New York Shitty
January 29, 2014

Anchors? Away! City looks to be torpedoing its own boathouse plan 

The Brooklyn Paper  -  June 23, 2011-  By Arron Short 

State approves Greenpoint boathouse

The Brooklyn Paper -  October 29, 2011 - BY AARON SHORT 

Newtown Creek communities to have their say on green projects

New York Daily News - December 1, 2010 - By Clare Trapasso

Elizabeth Crowley To Transfer Money From Hard Fought St. Saviour’s Project - Parks Dept. Walks

A makeshift basketball court kept in place with a cinder block faces the former St. Saviour’s church site on Thursday. For more than five years the community has been fighting to turn this formerly lush church property into a public park. This week they learned from a Daily News article that Council Member Elizabeth Crowley was pulling the money she allocated for that proposed park in order to pursue an alternative site approximately one fourth the size of St. Saviour’s. The Parks Department immediately responded saying they were no longer pursuing the St Saviour's site. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates.) Click on images to enlarge.

Critics have also strongly questioned the timing of her announcement and her decision to go to the media to announce her plan instead of waiting until next month when the DEC is required to make its determination on the first round of Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Mitigation Funding. On October 25th the Department of Environmental Protection (DEC) announced the projects it had chosen in a letter to the City Parks Foundation. The DEC has sixty days to make their final decision whether the projects were all feasible.

According to Christina Wilkinson, president of the Newtown Historical Society, State Senator Joseph Addabbo was waiting for a return call from DEC regarding $300,000 of unallocated settlement money and if some of it could be used to cover the St. Saviour’s ULURP fees now.

"The decision by Council Member Crowley and the Parks Dept to prematurely announce the non-guaranteed acquisition of the $14,785 sq ft Martin Luther site as a replacement for the 62,500 sq ft. St. Saviour's project means that the original project is now ineligible for $1.2M from the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Mitigation Funding that it was being considered for," said Christina Wilkinson the lead in fighting for the park.

"St. Saviour's had been listed as a priority 2 finalist, which meant it could have been eligible for funding had any of the priority 1 projects been found to be unfeasible. The determination of the feasibility is to be made next month. But Elizabeth Crowley could not wait that long to run to the Daily News and announce her "Maspeth park victory" in effect, screwing the community out of funding for the only project it had on the DEC list. A project many people had fought hard for. "

According to Ms. Wilkinson, Council member Crowley called her on Tuesday, November 8th and told her of the opportunity to acquire a 14,875 sq ft property at the corner of 61st Street and Maspeth Avenue from Martin Luther School, which currently uses the site as an accessory parking lot. Crowley said that Parks was on board with acquiring the Martin Luther site and had asked DCAS to appraise the property so that negotiations with the school could commence.

“Crowley assured me that it was her intention to use some of her funding toward the Martin Luther site, and then continue to seek other green space in Maspeth, including the St. Saviour’s site,” Wilkinson said. “I took her at her word. She asked me to gather community feedback on her proposal. I was in the process of doing so when I found out a few hours later that she had gone to the Daily News with her idea and was pitching the Martin Luther site as a “replacement” for the St. Saviour’s site. I can’t believe they torpedoed this project which has borough-wide and city hall support, in return for a much smaller site that is nothing but a maybe at this point and is not in jeopardy of being sold or developed as the St. Saviour’s site is."

Juniper Park Civic Association President Robert Holden says that about two months ago the association approached the Parks Department with the idea of transferring $75,000 from the original community grant allocated by former State Senator Serf Maltese to rebuild the church to begin ULURP for the park.

According to Mr. Holden, Maltese's successor, Senator Joseph Addabbo, says the money is still there. Holden noted that his staff keeps stalling him on that issue and he has still not received an answer.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Joshua Laird last week reiterated to a Walk In The Park that the Parks Department had not ruled out using eminent domain to acquire the St. Saviour's site.

People are also wondering that since the acquisition of the St. Saviour's site is much further along, why going after the Martin Luther site is not being done in tandem with the St. Saviour's site.

Multiple people who have been involved with the process for many years from the community say this decision was made without any community consultation or participation.

The community has also asked that since allocation funds have been earmarked for St. Saviour's, what guarantee is there that these funds will be available for the Martin Luther site?

“Unfortunately it appears that Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has given up the fight to save one of the most historic sites in the City of New York and Maspeth’s most important landmark," Juniper Park Civic Association President Robert Holden said.

"I’m not surprised. The St. Saviour’s historic land now contains warehouses as symbolic and grotesque monuments to the failure of the City of New York and our elected officials to recognize the importance of saving the last remaining landmarks of Maspeth’s history for future generations to enjoy.”

Repeated requests seeking a response from Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley went unanswered. - Geoffrey Croft

Queens

The city has given up its long fight to acquire the land where a historic Maspeth church once stood and turn it into park space, according to the New York Daily News.

But the city and City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) are now looking into purchasing a smaller parcel of land from the nearby Martin Luther School as an alternative to the St. Saviour’s site.

A Parks Department official told the Daily News Thursday that the city would not pursue the St. Saviour’s site, much to the dismay of locals who had been pushing for years for a park there.

But “we remain keenly interested in building a new park in Maspeth,” Parks Department spokesman Zachary Feder said in a statement.

An official from Maspeth Development, which owns the St. Saviour’s site, said the city’s offers were “significantly” lower than what the company paid for the property in 2006.

“I was willing to take a loss,” said company President Scott Kushnick. But “the price was way below anything I could accept.”

Kushnick began constructing warehouses there earlier this year. His original plan to build homes there were was scuttled by the city and the housing market crash, he said.

Crowley and the Queens Borough President Helen Marshall earmarked more than $4 million to buy the property and preserve and reconstruct the historic church.

But Crowley said she’s worried they could lose the money set aside if it isn’t used soon. “I don’t want that money to go away,” she said.

She said she recently spoke with the Martin Luther School, in Maspeth, about selling the city a third of an acre.


At 14,875 sq ft, the Martin Luther School site at the corner of 61 Street and Maspeth Avenue is about one forth the size of the St. Saviour's site. The property used to belong to St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, which is across the street.

“We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place right now,” said Crowley, who had pushed for St. Saviour’s to become a park.

“I want the people who live in and around Maspeth to have green space,” she said.

Randal Gast, head of the middle and high school, said the 52-year-old Lutheran institution is “willing to listen and engage in conversation” with the city.

The property is currently used only sporadically by the school, he said.

Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates, a Manhattan-based group, said the potential park land swap “should no way be considered a replacement for getting St. Saviour’s.”

“The new site is about a fourth of the size,” Croft said. “That community has so little park land.”

Christina Wilkinson, president of the Newtown Historical Society, based in Ridgewood, called the loss of St. Saviour’s “unacceptable.”

“It was a very historic site and it means a lot to the community,” she said. “It’s more than just green space — it’s our history.”

Read More:

City surrenders in long battle to turn historic St. Saviour’s site into Maspeth park
Crowley hopes to purchase smaller parcel as alternative
New York Daily News - November 10, 2011 - By Clare Trapasso

City looking at St. Saviour’s alternative

Times Ledger - November 17, 2011 - By Howard Koplowitz

Parks Dept. drops St. Saviour for now

Queens Chronicle - November 17, 2011 - by Michael Gannon

CITY REALLOCATES ST. SAVIOUR’S PARK MONEY

The South and West Forum - November 17, 2011

St. Saviour’s Park Activists Want State To Release Funds

A Walk In The Park - November 7, 2011

City’s St. Saviour's Park Plan Stalled Over $ 75K

A Walk In The Park - October 13, 2011

Maspeth Residents Rally For St. Saviour's Park

A Walk In the Park - May 22, 2011

St. Saviour’s Park Activists Want State To Release Funds

A rendering depicting the community's idea for a park at the St. Saviour's site. Last week the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released its list of projects to receive $7 million in mitigation funds in connection to the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment plant. The community in Maspeth is asking that $ 75,000 be released now to begin ULURP in order to acquire the property. The City Park Foundation is receiving a fee of $ 700,000. The site's owner recently began building warehouses. (Image courtesy Christina Wilkinson)

Queens

Advocates for a park at the St. Saviour’s site in Maspeth are hoping the state will change its mind and provide crucial funds for the project’s future, according to the Times Ledger.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation pledged to dish out $7 million in green projects to compensate for the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment plant’s role in polluting the waterway of the same name, and the winning suggestions were announced Friday.

The state budgeted $75,000 for one of two projects at St. Saviour’s, which is a lot where a church used to sit but where a developer is currently building warehouses. The project is about 1 percent of the total allocation money. But the DEC put it near the bottom of a list of other, more expensive projects that must be completed first, which means the money might dry up before St. Saviour’s’ number is even called.

“It’s just very strange how this all came about, and I hope our electeds get the DEC to make an adjustment,” said Christina Wilkinson, an advocate for the park.

The money — which pales in comparison to projects like a $3 million boathouse in Brooklyn and a $2 million park in Dutch Kills — would be used by the city to begin legal proceedings to acquire the land where the park would be built, know as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

On Sept. 30, a group of 13 Queens lawmakers sent a letter to the DEC asking to release the funds before the final projects were selected from a list of 22 suggestions on how to use the money.

“The release of the funding is imperative, since delaying the start of ULURP further threatens the acquisition and increases the cost of the project,” the letter said.

On Friday they saw that the money had been set aside, but might never be released at all.

A spokesman from the DEC said the state finalized the projects in the order they were ranked by the community.

“The state’s review did not change how the projects are ranked, but provides an opportunity for the development of projects on the secondary list should funds become available after the priority list is exhausted,” said a DEC spokesman.

But the final ranking put St. Saviour’s fourth, not its current seventh.

The DEC is not the agency responsible for actually seeing that the projects are completed. That responsibility lies with the nonprofit City Parks Foundation, the group that released the list and order of the projects.

And the city Parks Department would be the agency responsible for implementing ULURP and has repeatedly pledged to begin the process as soon as the money is available.

Although there is $5.5 million in funds already allocated toward the park from various elected officials and sources, none of that capital money can be used for ULURP.

And the process will likely end in the city using eminent domain to seize the property, according to Geoffrey Croft, president of the nonprofit NYC Park Advocates, who said he had spoken with high-ranking Parks officials.

“The expectation is that the elected will continue to fund the acquisition for St. Saviour’s and by the time ULURP is complete we’ll have money to buy it,” he said.

But Parks has refused to make an official statement regarding the use of eminent domain.

A separate St. Saviour’s project was included in the winning entries, and would set aside $1.125 million for the park’s construction.

Read More:

St. Saviour’s activists want state to release funds

Times Ledger - November 4, 2011 - By Joe Anuta

City’s St. Saviour's Park Plan Stalled Over $ 75K

A developer continues to build warehouse walls on the old St. Saviour's Church site where the community wants a park to be built instead. (Photo courtesy Marek Skiba)

Queens

Nearly two months have passed since the city committed itself to acquiring the old St. Saviour’s Church site in Maspeth for parkland, and even though $5.5 million has already been allocated to purchase the property, a sum of money totaling about 1 percent of that amount is holding up the process while warehouse walls rapidly climb, according to Times Ledger.

“It’s not an enormous amount of money,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates. “There are so many examples of the city putting up money for things. This just does not seem to be a priority.”

The scene a few months earlier - May 21, 2011. Construction equipment in the barren St. Saviour's site. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)

The city Parks Department needs between $50,000 and $70,000 to begin the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, a formal process that takes at least a few months whereby the city can legally buy private property.

By law, Parks cannot take the money for ULURP from the capital fund, which is the roughly $5.5 million purse that has been set aside by borough politicians to actually purchase the land.

There are several other places where the money could come from, and Croft and other advocates for the park have been trying to be creative in order to secure the funds.

He has reached out to the National Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit that seeks to secure parkland, as well as the City Parks Foundation, a nonprofit with a similar mission on a city level.

So far, he has heard nothing.

The money could also come from city discretionary funding given to lawmakers on a city level.

“I think honestly there has been a real reluctance and an insecurity to getting this job done on the part of the electeds,” Croft said. “They’re not as aggressive as the community wants them to be.”

A total of 13 lawmakers sent a letter to the state Department of Environmental Conservation in September asking for funds for the ULURP process.

The potential park at St. Saviour’s is on a list of projects that could receive funding by the DEC in the future, but the electeds requested that some funds be released early to cover the cost of ULURP.

“The release of the funding is imperative, since delaying the start of the ULURP process further threatens the acquisition of the site and increases the cost of the project,” the letter said.

Neighbors who live across from the lot have witnessed a barrage of construction in the two months since the city agreed to begin ULURP.

Concrete block walls have risen from the dusty lot that housed only foundations in August.

Water mains and other utilities appear to have been installed, according to residents who monitor the construction.

In June, a full stop work order was issued on the property.

According to the city Department of Buildings website, the stop work order was fully lifted at the end of August. But for another section of the lot, a partial stop work order is still in effect.

But if the city actually begins the ULURP process, it will attempt to acquire the entire property, even the portion with the impending warehouses, according to Croft.

Christina Wilkinson has also advocated heavily for the park, and was incredulous the city could not find the money somewhere.

“We are to supposed to believe ... there isn’t $70,000 somewhere in the city’s $66 billion budget for a park for Maspeth?” she asked, citing multi-million projects like the renovation of Times Square and a new golf course in the Bronx.

In July 2007, all 185 trees on the property were cut down without any warning. Shortly after the parsonage was demolished, the church was removed and the land was leveled.

Read More:

City’s parkland plan for Maspeth church stalled

Times Ledger - October 13, 2011 - By Joe Anuta

Maspeth Residents Rally For St. Saviour's Park

A Walk In the Park - May 22, 2011

Newtown Creek Wastewater Settlement Could Fund St. Saviour Park

Rendering of St. Saviour's Park (2010). The City Parks Foundation has narrowed the proposed list of Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment plant mitigation funded projects to 26 possibilities. While the majority of the projects center around Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where the plant is located, there are several projects focused in Queens. Chief among them is using the funds to help create a desperately needed park at the former St. Saviour’ church site. Park and open space advocates have pressing the city to create park at this location for years.

Queens

Years of rampant pollution and mismanagement at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment plant will soon pay off for the surrounding community, and possibly provide funds for the local projects such as a public park at the former St. Saviour’s site in Maspeth, according to Forum News.

In 2008, the city and state reached a landmark agreement to bring the plant, the city’s largest treatment facility, to federal environmental compliance. As part of that agreement, $10 million was allocated for environmental benefit projects, and the City Parks Foundation was chosen to establish a process to determine what the community wants before the state Department of Environmental Conservation makes a selection.

After careful deliberation, planning and public hearings, the City Parks Foundation has narrowed the proposed list of projects to 26 possibilities. While the majority of the projects center around Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where the plant is located, there are several projects focused in Queens.

Chief among the Queens project is creating a park at the former church site, an idea that has been discussed for years. As recently as this September’s Community Board 5 meeting, Christina Wilkinson, president of the Newtown Historical Society, made a case for the city to buy the land and create a public park. Other plans for the site, which activists including Wilkinson and the Juniper Park Civic Association fought against, called for residential houses or warehouses to be built on the land.

The proposal to use the Newtown Creek funds to create a park at the site was given a “B” grade at the City Parks Foundation’s October 28 public hearing. The project is possible, but faces challenges because the government does not own the site.

“We could secure all the funding and the owner could say I don’t really want to sell it,” said David Ravel, City Parks Foundation spokesman. “It’s contingent on something else.” Other projects call for updates to existing parkland, which the foundation knows they can immediately begin work on.

Read More:

Newtown Creek Settlement Could Fund Park at St. Saviour's

Forum News - November 11, 2010 - By Eric Yun

City Officials Dragging Their Feet On St. Saviour's Church Park Site

A Walk In The Park - July 16, 2010

The Story of St. Saviour's: One Community's Battle to Create a City Park

A Walk In The Park - May 17, 2010 - By Christina Wilkinson

St. Saviour's Church Site Gaining Steam To Become City Parkland?

A Walk In The Park - November 12, 2009