Union Square Park Pavilion Concessionaire Announced - Lawsuit Being Prepared

The area around Union Square Park has the lowest amount of playground space and the highest concentration of restaurants in the entire city. In CB 5 there are only two playgrounds but more than 150 eating establishments, bars and markets within just a two-block radius of the park. Despite vehement community opposition, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and The Union Square Partnership (BID) are attempting to take away thousands of square feet of potential recreation and community space for six months of the year in order to accommodate a seasonal restaurant. (Photos: © Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge.

Critics also charge that allowing the pavilion to be converted into a seasonal restaurant will dramatically alter the Park's historic first amendment and free speech uses. For more than a 130 years the Park's pavilions have served as a backdrop for countless labor rallies and social protests. It is this important role which served as one of the main reasons why the park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

Manhattan

Back To Court. The Parks Department announced the winner today of the controversial Union Square Pavilion restaurant concession, complete with a friendly name. City Farm Café was picked as the new operator of a seasonal café in Union Square Park, managed by O-V Hospitality Group, LLC (“O-V”), a New York-based restaurant management firm.

The concessionaire has guaranteed to pay the city a minimum of $ 400,000 annually, (That's a lot of high-priced alcohol sales) in the first year of a 15-year deal or 18 percent of gross revenues, whichever is greater. In its last year of operation Luna Cafe paid the City $ 217,000 according to city sources.

Eliminating the park's historic free speech and rally space? The proposed new outdoor dining area on the park's North plaza will include scrim awnings and "lighting designed to cast a warm glow during evening hours." If allowed to operate during the day the proposed dining area is expected to impede on the parks' historic first amendment and free space role in the Northern plaza as the city will be less inclined to issue permits for large gatherings in order to protect the commercial interests of the restaurant. (Rendering by CMS Architecture and Design)

The Union Square Community Coalition, one of the City's oldest park advocacy organizations, has vowed to go back to court to prevent the City and the BID from taking way potential play space from children.

For more than six years a broad based coalition has fought to restore the historic pavilion for children and community uses year round.

In 2004, Save Union Square Park, a grass roots, community - based campaign was organized by NYC Park Advocates to advocate for the needs of the community. With the help and support of 57 community organizations, elected officials and a broad-based labor coalition, the campaign succeeded in defeating an irresponsible plan to create a year-round restaurant and greatly increased playground space, much of it recaptured from play areas lost to the previous seasonal cafe.

The interior décor will include a large communal table and a full-service wine bar. The proposed restaurant would operate between May and October - when the public's need for and use of park space is the greatest.

Winter Wonderland. Under the city plan children are expected to play in the open air pavilion under heating lamps located in the ceiling for the remaining six months of the year. Instead of utilizing renovated and newly created indoor space for children and the community they built a kitchen instead. Programming will be severely limited due to space the weather restrictions.

The bar/restaurant would be inches away from a heavily utilized playground.

The area around Union Square Park has the lowest amount of playground space and the Highest concentration of restaurants in the entire city. In CB 5 there are only two playgrounds but there are more than 150 eating establishments, bars and markets within just a two-block radius of the park. Compounding the problem, the Parks Commissioner recently decided to eliminate a popular sand playground located on the West side of the park without any community consultation.

Despite the serious need for additional recreational and sheltered community space, the Union Square Partnership Business Improvement District (BID)/Local Development Corp (LDC) with the help of the City is intent on seizing thousands of square feet of potential play and community space by turning the historic pavilion into a restaurant.

The restaurant would operate from May through October - when the public's need for and use of park space is the greatest. Despite vehement community opposition, the City continues to ignore the community's wishes.

Rally in Union Square, New York City, May 1, 1933. For more than 130 years, the park‘s pavilions have served a speakers’ rostrum, and as a focal point for countless labor rallies and social protests. It is this important role which served as one of the main reasons why the park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

On March 15, 2011, MoveOn.org held its Save the American Dream Rally in front of the historic pavilion, an area the outdoor restaurant concession space would occupy if allowed. Despite vehement community opposition, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and The Union Square Partnership BID are attempting to take away the historic uses of the Park's Northern end for six months of the year in order to accommodate a seasonal restaurant. The public's need for First Amendment rally space is not limited to the winter months. (Photo: David M. Quintana/Lost in the Ozone)

The pavilion and adjacent playgrounds have played an important role in the lives of countless children. For more than 130 years, the park‘s pavilions have served many functions - a playspace for children, a bandstand, a reviewing stand, a speakers’ rostrum, and as a focal point for labor rallies and social protests.

Due to its configuration and the size of the North end of the park it has historically accommodated large gatherings of people for many reasons including protests demonstrations and rallies. The City/BID's plan is expected to impede on the parks' historic First Amendment and free speech role in the north plaza since the City will be less inclined to issue permits for large gatherings in order to protect the commercial interests of the restaurant. It is this important role which served as one of the main reasons why the park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

The community wants the pavilion renovated and restored to its former uses which include a sheltered, indoor recreation center that serves a variety of year-round recreation and free public uses.

Legal Background:

After years of failing to address the community's wishes, Union Square Community Coalition unfortunately was forced to seek relief though the legal system. On April 19, 2008, the Union Square Community Coalition filed a lawsuit (USCC v. NYC Parks, Index No. 08/105578)

challenging the Parks Department and Union Square Partnership's (BID) plans to install a restaurant in the historic pavilion.

On April 22, 2008, New York State Supreme Court Justice E. H. Stackhouse issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the City/BID thus halting the project in all respects except those necessary to make site safe for the public. On May 7, 2008, State Superior Court Justice Jane S. Solomon allowed construction to proceed on the renovation of the North end of the park but extended the injunction which prevented the operation of a restaurant, or the installation of fixtures for a restaurant, pending further order of the Court. In so doing, the court found that USCC is likely to prevail on its central claim that without state legislative approval, the restaurant would be an unlawful alienation of parkland once that claim is ripe.

The City moved to dismiss the case, claiming it is both unripe (because, allegedly, several steps remain in the process before a restaurant concession could be offered) and non-meritorious.

On March 30, 2009 Justice Solomon dismissed the lawsuit ruling the suit is too early to file and is not ready (ripe) until the City is further along with the restaurant. The main issue, whether or not the restaurant needs to go through the state legislation was not decided.

In dismissing the lawsuit Justice Solomon also reaffirmed a legal position that not all restaurants in all parks are universally acceptable.

- Geoffrey Croft

A new stand-alone food kiosk to the west of the pavilion and playground will replace a former newsstand. It will offer food and beverages year-round.

Read More:

Don Pintabona, celeb chef behind 9/11 responder meal campaign, picked for Union Square restaurant

New York Daily News - May 17th 2011 - By Jonathan Lemire

City gives cafe contract for Union Square pavilion

The Villager - May 19, 2011 - By Albert Amateau

Parks Department Press release below

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 17, 2011

No. 34

www.nyc.gov/parks

CITY SELECTS NEW OPERATOR FOR SEASONAL CAFÉ

IN UNION SQUARE PARK

City Farm Café Chef Favors Local Food, Sustainable Practices, and Great Eats

Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe today announced the selection of the City Farm Café as the new operator of a seasonal café in Union Square Park, managed by O-V Hospitality Group, LLC (“O-V”), a New York-based restaurant management firm.

From May through October, anticipated to begin in 2012, this seasonal café will provide park users with a casual and affordable food service in the newly restored historic Pavilion in Union Square Park, part of a long tradition of unique and diverse food services in City parks. In keeping with Union Square Park’s history as the birthplace of the City’s first Greenmarket and with the Parks Department’s initiative to provide varied and healthy food options in City parks, City Farm Café’s menu will feature seasonal produce and other food products from the Union Square Greenmarket.

In the off-season, the Pavilion will be used for a range of educational and recreational activities open to the public from November through April. The Parks Department plans to sponsor childrens’ programs, fitness programs, and films, and the Greenmarket plans to organize public education programs to encourage healthy eating habits.

“City Farm Café submitted an inventive proposal for a seasonal café that will take full advantage of the locally grown and produced fresh food sold at the Union Square Greenmarket,” said Commissioner Benepe.

“This seasonal café will bring food service back to Union Square Park following the successful run of the Luna Café that was in the park from 1994 to 2007, part of a 150-year-old tradition of having restaurants and food concessions in parks. It will also be a welcome addition to the park’s restored north end, a $20 million project that included the rehabilitation of the north and west plazas, the creation of a 15,000-square-foot playground for all ages and abilities, the restoration of the Pavilion, the construction of new public restrooms, historic lighting matched to existing lighting found throughout the park, new landscaping and more than 50 trees. I am grateful to the Union Square Partnership for its significant help in furthering these enhancements.”

“It’s a dream come true for a chef to operate a restaurant steps away from the Union Square Greenmarket,” said Chef Don Pintabona, one of the managing partners of O-V. “I am very excited about planning menus around all the wonderful produce that is in season at the Greenmarket.”

Pintabona was the opening chef at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Grill and is the author of The Tribeca Grill Cookbook and The Shared Table. Chef Pintabona has been closely involved with dozens of charitable organizations including the We are Family Foundation, Share Our Strength, and City Harvest. Pintabona spearheaded the “Operation Chefs with Spirit” campaign that fed over 600,000 hot meals to the relief workers at the World Trade Center site after the 9/11 attacks. Newsweek Magazine featured Pintabona as one of New York City’s pivotal figures during the relief efforts.

Partnering with Pintabona is Giorgio Kolaj, who with Chef Pintabona operates Valentino’s on the Green, a new NYC park concession, in Bayside, Queens with plans to build an urban farm at the site that will provide food for the restaurant and the Bayside community. Giorgio and his brother Paul also own and operate the successful Famous Famiglia Pizzeria restaurant chain.

Chris Smith of CMS Architecture and Design has proposed a playful and imaginative design that complements many of the elements of the North End Project, particularly the recent rehabilitation of the Pavilion, with a clear eye toward sustainability. The design for the café will integrate historic elements of Union Square with contemporary green and sustainable technologies, including a new state-of-the-art kitchen. The interior décor will include a large communal table and a full-service wine bar. A new outdoor dining area on the north plaza will include scrim awnings, and the lighting design will cast a warm and inviting glow during evening hours.

Additionally, a new stand-alone food kiosk to the west of the Pavilion proposed to be constructed using reclaimed materials. The kiosk, which will need to be reviewed and approved by the Public Design Commission, replaces a former newsstand that operated year-round in that location and will provide food and beverage items to park users on-the-go year-round.

“I am so excited to be working in Union Square Park,” said Chris Smith of CMS Architecture and Design. “It’s not only one of the city’s great public spaces; it’s my neighborhood park. I live and work in the area and my children use the playground.”

City Farm Café has committed to a minimum capital investment of over $1.1 million.

License fees for this contract will start at a minimum of $400,000 a year and escalate by 5% each year of the 15-year license term. The minimum fees are versus 18% of gross revenue, whichever is greater. As with most food concessions in parks, the fees paid to the City will go to the General Fund to pay for basic city services. The seasonal café anticipates opening in the Spring of 2012, pending approvals from the Public Design Commission and the Franchise and Concession Review Committee (FCRC).

Year-Round Community Programming

GrowNYC’s Greenmarket program, which has been a fixture in the north plaza of Union Square Park since 1976, will develop a relationship with City Farm Café to provide public activities and education at the Pavilion. During the offseason, Greenmarket will use the Pavilion as a community space to enhance its public education programs such as cooking classes, schools tours, children’s book readings, farmer meet and greets, and other activities – all with an emphasis on encouraging healthy eating habits and promoting regional agriculture. City Farm Café will complement the Greenmarket’s offseason community programming with movie nights, readings, musical performances, urban gardening classes, and healthy eating and cooking classes while operating.

“The chefs at the City Farm Café will be blessed with the freshest, healthiest, best tasting ingredients at their doorstep,” said Marcel Van Ooyen, GrowNYC Executive Director. “We look forward to their joining the Greenmarket family of chefs who are dedicated to supporting small family farms and regional agriculture by buying and preparing the bounty our farmers bring to the city every day.”

These efforts will build on the successful public-private partnership with the Union Square Partnership, which invests over $750,000 annually to support the maintenance, beautification and programming in the park. USP’s widely-attended annual calendar of events includesSummer in the Square, a 9-week series with a running club and yoga and low-impact cardio classes, children’s entertainment, dance, and musical performances, as well as park volunteer clean-up days, and its largest event of the year, Harvest in the Square, which raises vital funds for Union Square Parks.

“The Union Square Partnership has served as the Union Square community for over 30 years and we are proud of our work, especially the support we provide for Union Square Park through our successful public-private partnership with the City’s Parks Department,” said Executive Director Jennifer Falk. “We could not be more pleased with the success to date of the North End Project, and we look forward to working with our new partners at City Farm Café to ensure that this amenity represents the very best that Union Square has to offer.”

Since it opened in 1839, Union Square Park has served as a stage for countless community events and festivals, including the first Labor Day parade in 1882, workers' rallies in the 1930s, and the first Earth Day celebration in 1970.

# # #