Preservationists decry Tech Hub, again
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
Members of the Village’s leading
preservation group protested
the 14th St. Tech Hub,
during its groundbreaking ceremony
earlier this month.
Village Preservation has repeatedly
decried the development of the Union
Square Tech Training Center, at 124 E.
14th St., arguing that promised protective
measures should have been implemented
and that the project is an extension
of “Midtown South” and “Silicon
Alley” into the Village. The preservation
society is also calling for an investigation
into what it calls a “sweetheart
deal” for RAL, the project’s developers.
“Rather than a cause for celebration,
the groundbreaking ceremony for the
14th St. Tech Hub calls for serious examination
of the corrupt process which
led to its approval and the sweetheart
deal it had to several donors to the
mayor,” the preservation group said in
a statement.
“This sad saga is rife with broken
commitments and promises made by
both the mayor and Councilmember
Carlina Rivera regarding protections
and mitigations for the surrounding
neighborhood,” the statement added.
During her 2017 City Council campaign,
Activists with Village Preservation protested at the groundbreaking
ceremony for the Union Square Tech Hub on E. 14th St.
Rivera expressed support for the
Tech Hub, but only provided the city
enact some zoning measures to protect
the surrounding area from what the
preservationists warned would be an
ongoing surge of commercial and residential
development. Yet, last August,
COURTESY VILLAGE PRESERVATION
the City Council unanimously approved
the Tech Hub without protections or
height caps for the surrounding area.
After the groundbreaking, Village
Preservation released a report outlining
information found via Freedom of
Information Law requests that reveal
lower rent payments for RAL than the
site’s previous tenant.
According to the records, RAL is set
to pay around $5 million for the fi rst
three years it occupies the property, or
about $1.6 million a year. For the following
fi ve years, the developer would
pay $2.3 million a year. The previous
tenant, PC Richard & Son, paid $1.7
million annually for a two-story building.
Other documents in the report show
the city has no written record of why
RAL was selected to take on the project
over other bidders that did ask for
an upzoning request, allowing for the
creation of more commercial offi ce
space.
In 2015, RAL made a least a $10,000
contribution to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
nonprofi t Campaign for One New York,
according to the New York Post.
The Union Square Tech Training
Center is scheduled to open by 2020.
The 21-story building will include a
digital-skills training space operated
by nonprofi t Civic Hall, in addition to
a co-working space for startups and established
tech companies alike.
One fl oor will have space for community
organizations, as well as a food
hall, retail spaces, and small businesses,
according to the city’s Economic
Development Corporation.
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