Feds Defend Tobacco Warehouse Giveaway

As expected the National Park Service (NPS) defended its decision to remove the Tobacco Warehouse property in Brooklyn Bridge Park from Federal protection. On February 14, 2011 the NPS sent a letter to Andy Beers, Acting NYS parks commissioner and the Brooklyn Heights Association, informing them of its decision. NPS's decison is the subject of a State and federal lawsuit charging that state park officials secretly and illegally removed the Tobacco Warehouse to allow St. Anne’s Warehouse, an arts group, to occupy the space.

A federal grant was administered by the NPS under the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a national grant program designed to help create and maintain outdoor recreational sites. In 2001 the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYSOPRHP) requested LWCF funds for park improvements. As a condition for receiving funds the NPS required that NYSOP agree to never allow the parkland to be alienated. The facility was to be maintained in public outdoor recreation "in perpetuity." State Parks reneged on this agreement. - Geoffrey Croft

Brooklyn

The National Parks Service today ruled a popular DUMBO arts group can move forward with its $15 million plan to relocate and expand operations to a historic 19th-century building within the massive waterfront park, according to the New York Post.

St. Ann’s Warehouse plans to bring community events and live theater to the currently roofless remains of the Tobacco Warehouse building by 2013.

The US Justice Department last month ordered the Parks Service to review the project after grass-roots groups and preservationists filed two lawsuits claiming the building was illegally removed by the city from federal parkland protection. But the Parks Service backed the city’s position that the warehouse is not restricted to outdoor recreation.

St. Ann’s proposal includes two performance spaces, including a 10,000-square-foot theater to accommodate 300-700 people and a 2,100-square-foot flexible space that could accommodate an audience of 125. The 7,600-square-foot triangular section of the warehouse will be left open-air and is envisioned as a walled public garden with café tables and chairs.

The remainder of the site will include a lobby, public restrooms and performance-support space.

The city is allowing subtenants to use some of the space within the warehouse. Five have already inquired, including the nonprofit Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy – which offers park programming — and the Brooklyn Flea.

Regina Myer, president of the city’s Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp., hailed the decision, saying it would "allow for the preservation of this historic warehouse and reuse as a vibrant cultural and community venue. A world-class performance space and open-air garden will greatly benefit Brooklyn Bridge Park and the surrounding communities."

But project opponents said they still planned to follow through with the lawsuits.

"The announcement from the National Park Service in the Tobacco Warehouse case should shock anyone committed to good government," said Jane McGroarty, president of the Brooklyn Heights Association, one of the plaintiffs.

"It’s clear that the National Park Service — an agency charged with protecting our public parkland — has reneged on this duty and has yielded to political pressure from City Hall. Our lawsuit continues, and we will litigate vigorously so that these ‘back room’ deals do not rob the public of what is rightfully theirs."

St. Ann’s, which is moving across the street from its Water Street location, needs a new home because its landlord, DUMBO developer David Walentas, plans to take its existing site to move forward on a controversial 17-story development that opponents charge will block scenic views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Read More:

Feds greenlight DUMBO arts group’s plan to expand operations to historic 19th Century Tobacco Warehouse

The New York Post - The Brooklyn Blog - February 15, 2011 - By Rich Calder

Feds illegally Gave Away Tobacco Warehouse In Brooklyn Bridge Park - Suit

A Walk In The Park - January 19, 2011

Lack Of Transparency Cited Over Brooklyn Bridge Park Tobacco Warehouse Bid

A Walk In The Park - November 17, 2010

Feds illegally Gave Away Tobacco Warehouse In Brooklyn Bridge Park - Suit

State and federal lawsuits charge that officials secretly and illegally removed the Tobacco Warehouse In Brooklyn Bridge Park from federal protection. Almost 15% of the money used to restore Empire Fulton Ferry Park came from a federal grant administered by the National Park Service (NPS) pursuant to the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a national grant program designed to help create and maintain outdoor recreational sites. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYSOPRHP) requested the funds in 2001 and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was allocated for park improvements.

As a condition for receiving funds the NPS required that NYSOP agree to never allow the parkland to be alienated. NYSOPRHP certified this agreement on June 21, 2001. The facility was to be maintained in public outdoor recreation "in perpetuity." State Parks reneged on this agreement.

The suits allege that State Parks made a secret application to NPS asking that the Tobacco Warehouse be removed from the federally protected park.

The Department of the Interior approved New York State Office of Parks' request for LWCF funds in a letter dated December 13, 2001 but later failed to protect the parkland or the public investment the lawsuits allege.

"State officials secretly took a historic landmark off the map of a federally protected park to allow private development. To do that, they gave false and misleading information to the federal government," said Jim Walden a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

The lawsuits name, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Brooklyn Bridge Park Corperation, and the National Park Service.

This is not the first time the LWCF has been criticized for not protecting area parkland. They recently allowed the Bloomberg administration to seize parkland in the South Bronx in order to accommodate the New York Yankees in building a new stadium.

Brooklyn

Three groups that contributed more than $2 million to improve a historic building claim the National Park Service is furthering "a secret agenda on behalf of private, commercial interests" to privatize the Civil War-era Tobacco Warehouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park, according to Courthouse News Service.

The Brooklyn Heights Association, the Fulton Ferry Landing Association and the New York Landmarks Conservancy claim that after they spent more than $2 million rehabilitating the site, the Park Service granted a request in a "secret application" by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYSOP) "asking that the Tobacco Warehouse be removed from the map of the federally protected park," and "to prepare for private development of the historic Tobacco Warehouse."

In their federal complaint, the three say the Tobacco Warehouse, part of Brooklyn Bridge Park, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges on the Brooklyn side of the East River, was available for "year-round free public uses" from 2004 until 2009. In that year, the NYSOP "shuttered it as part of a secret ploy to privatize it" and "closed access to the Tobacco Warehouse, claiming that further renovation was required," according to the complaint.

The warehouse was built around 1860 as a tobacco storage and Customs inspection center. It is "one of the few surviving examples of its type" and "evokes the feeling of an unfinished church or Welsh ruins of an abbey in modern-day Brooklyn," according to the complaint.

The plaintiff groups and members of the community saved the warehouse from two previous plans to demolish it, including one in 1960 when the space was "effectively abandoned" and one in 1999, when the building had severe fire damage and was "structurally unsound due to prolonged inattention."

The building's importance "cannot be overstated," the groups say, as "an example of an architectural style that represents its era and is a standing reminder of the 19th century warehouses which defined that era in Brooklyn's history."

The groups claim that the NYSOP's 2008 secret application to the National Park Service to remove the warehouse from the park map and "de-park" it was "subterfuge."

They say the Park Service "performed no meaningful diligence at all concerning NYSOP's request," and if t had, it would have discovered that the warehouse was "open to the public to wander through during the park's hours of operation."

The Park Service was so negligent that it described the warehouse as "an indoor recreational facility," which is inaccurate, as it has no roof. The groups also claim that the Park Service "did not evaluate all practical alternatives to the conversion," nor do research "into whether equal fair market value was received."

This is because "the State of New York failed to submit a list of practical alternatives," as it should have, according to the complaint.

The groups challenge "the illegal taking of public parkland in Brooklyn for private benefits, particularly after the community has consistently fought to preserve [its] historic character."

They seek declaratory judgment and a permanent injunction "requiring that defendant redraw the map to again include the Tobacco Warehouse." They are represented by Jim Walden with Gibson, Dunn & Crutche

Read More:

Groups Fight Privatization of Historic Building

Courthouse New Service - January 18, 2011 - By Chris Fry

Advocates say Brooklyn Bridge Park illegally sold Tobacco Warehouse, sue to stop development

New York Daily News - January 18, 2011 - By Erin Durkin

'Tobacco' woes! Suit says state lied to feds to privatize Park warehouse And a judge has ordered an expedited hearing, too.

Courier-Life - January 19, 2011- By Andy Campbell

Lack Of Transparency Cited Over Brooklyn Bridge Park Tobacco Warehouse Bid

A Walk In The Park - November 17, 2010