Embattled Two Bridges Towers gets appeals
court OK – but two more cases await
BY RACHEL HOLLIDAY SMITH
THE CITY
A panel of judges on Aug. 27 slapped
down a decision that had blocked
a three-building megadevelopment
on the Lower East Side. But that doesn’t
mean construction in Two Bridges has the
go-ahead — yet.
A unanimous decision from the Appellate
Division reversed a particularly ardent
ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge
Arthur Engoron last summer that had said
pre-existing development rules for the
site did not permit three planned 70- to
100-story buildings on the waterfront.
The higher court ruled that the City
Planning Commission had made the right
call when it approved tweaks to the development
rules the developers requested, and
found “no error” with the decision to not
put the project through the public review
process known as ULURP.
The decision is a win for the consortium
of developers that have banded together to
get approval to separately build the towers
on three development sites within the Two
Bridges area of the neighborhood, once an
urban renewal zone now home to many
low-income tenants.
The venture backed by CIM Group,
L+M Development Partners, Starrett Development
and JDS Development Group
would add 2,775 apartments to the area,
25% of which would be classifi ed as affordable
housing.
The appellate decision, however, only
The Two Bridges area on the East River in lower Manhattan, July 16, 2019.
applies to a lawsuit brought in late 2018 by
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer
and City Council members against the city
and the City Planning Commission.
A pair of separate legal actions brought
by two coalitions of local residents and
activists are still pending and have not yet
been resolved, noted Paula Segal, an attorney
with TakeRoot Justice who represents
clients in one of the remaining cases.
“This is defi nitely not a greenlight for
the megatowers to go forward,” she said
on Thursday.
Like the elected offi cials’ lawsuit, her
clients’ case also hinges on whether or
not the development went through the
proper approval process, but in a slightly
different way. They argue that the City
Planning Commission did not complete
an authorization required under the site’s
zoning category, known as a Large Scale
PHOTO BY BEN FRACTENBERG/THE CITY
Residential Development Plan.
Segal’s clients got a win from Engoron
in February when he ruled in their favor.
The city has appealed that decision, which
will likely be considered in November at
the earliest, she said.
Shifting Landscape
Meanwhile, a wholly separate legal battle
over development rights at one of the three
would-be buildings — set to rise atop an
existing residence for seniors — is ongoing.
JDS DevelopmentA rendering of a
planned tower as part of the Two Bridges
development that would be built over a
senior housing complex at the corner of
Rutgers Slip and Cherry Street.
And locals have said they hope that
case drags on long enough for a grassroots
neighborhood rezoning proposal to move
forward, which would cap all buildings at
about 35 stories in an area from Catherine
Street to Montgomery Street between South
and Cherry streets.
It has been a long road for the developers
of the towers in Two Bridges, who fi rst
unveiled their plans publicly in 2016.
As the court fi ghts continue, the real
estate market in New York is shifting in
the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,
with vacancies rising and prices dropping
in Manhattan, particularly for higher-end
and new properties.
Well before the virus crisis hit the city,
one prominent indicator spelled possible
trouble ahead in Two Bridges. At One
Manhattan Square, a large condominium
tower constructed in 2018 just north of the
Manhattan Bridge, only one fi fth of units
had sold by this time last year.
This May, owners Extell Development
cut prices on every remaining apartment
in the building by 20%.
James Yolles, a spokesperson for the
group of developers in Two Bridges, would
not comment on their timeline, or whether
development would move forward if legally
permitted to do so.
“We applaud the court’s decision, which
makes clear that these projects were lawfully
approved and comply with zoning
that’s been in place for more than 30 years,”
he said.
This article was fi rst published on
Aug. 27 by THE CITY, an independent,
nonprofi t news outlet dedicated to hardhitting
reporting that serves the people of
New York.
Switch work wrapped on 4/5/6 lines
BY MARK HALLUM
Switch repairs on the 4/5/6
trains near Union Square
station wrapped in time for
the Monday morning commute on
Aug. 31.
“We are changing the way we
do construction work to reduce
– and prevent – disruption for
customers,” said Janno Lieber,
president of MTA Construction
and Development. “Priority One is
to fi x things before they break and
require emergency repairs. Then,
we have to make sure projects get
completed on time – especially
when the work requires outages or
service changes. This project was
a big success by both standards.”
On Aug. 10, the MTA reduced
service on the three East Side
train lines to replace switches
and complete other repair work
which mean riders had to take a
different route when during overnight
and weekend hours to get
anywhere in Manhattan south of
42 St – Grand Central. The usual
schedule commence at 5 a.m.,
according to the MTA.
Also on Monday, the MTA
restored front-door boarding
on all buses; at the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic, they
switched to rear-door boarding
in April after the danger to bus
drivers became apparent, cutting
off the fi rst three rows of buses
and ceasing to collect fares. Up
to 131 transit workers died from
COVID-19.
Union Square station on Aug. 10.
Now the agency says it has
fi nished retrofi tting 5,800 buses
with barriers between the drivers
and the rest of the public and will
begin accepting fares.
“As we prepare for Monday,
we want customers and
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
employees to know we are doing
everything we can to keep
them safe – from disinfecting
our buses to mandating masks
to installing protective barriers
for our operators,” Sarah Feinberg,
Interim President of New
York City Transit, said. “We
honor and respect our heroic
frontline employees for everything
they continue to do for
our city. We are resuming fare
collection at a time when we are
facing the worst fi nancial crisis
in MTA history and we need
the federal government to step
up and deliver $12 billion in
urgently needed funding now.”
And the fi nancial crisis Feinberg
mentions is no joke.
With a pending defi cit of up
$16 billion by 2023, they MTA
is asking for $12 billion from
the federal government just to
support operations through
the end of 2021 as fare and toll
revenue continues to make a slow
comeback.
Schneps Media September 3, 2020 3