n a recent New York magazine article, Dan Doctoroff, Michael Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, surmised that, without the fall of the World Trade Center, none of the myriad development projects that are scattered across the five boroughs would have ever taken place. “We never would have had the resources or the will to invest the way we’re investing in lower Manhattan,” Doctoroff wrote. “Back in 2001, if you had walked one block in any direction from the World Trade Center, it was blighted. That is changing right now, as we speak.”
Last week, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. took another step forward in the grinding, tedious process that is the redevelopment of Ground Zero, releasing the plans for the three companion buildings that will accompany the Freedom Tower upon its completion. Working by himself, developer Larry Silverstein has already completed the reconstruction of World Trade Center 7, and boasts a 75 percent occupancy rate. The remaining development, all controlled by the State through the LMDC, will not be completed until 2012. Governor George Pataki, who has rightly shouldered the blame for the problems that have plagued Ground Zero’s redevelopment, is keeping a happy face, hailing the announcement by bringing up one of his biggest boondoggles.
“As the world stood transfixed on how Americans and New Yorkers would respond to the worst attacks on American soil, we dared to dream big and think bold. We selected the visionary master site plan by Daniel Libeskind that placed the Memorial to our nearly 3,000 lost heroes at its heart, and that inspired plan not only remains intact, but will be nearly fully realized by 2012,” Pataki said. Libeskind’s “visionary master plan” has been nothing but a problem since it was first released in 2003, following a design contest that some suspect was rigged to select him in the first place. The project’s lack of structural soundness further detracted from Libeskind’s reputation as the great architect who would lift the City from its post-9/11 depression. As originally constructed, the Freedom Tower would have been unsafe, and its top half, featuring an open garden and windmills, likely would have blown over in heavy winds. Silverstein has now commissioned David Childs to redesign the structure, and Libeskind’s contribution, which the public considered at best uninspiring, is pretty minimal at this point.
The problems at Ground Zero aside, the five boroughs have seen a significant increase in overall development since 9/11. Between major proposed developments like the Atlantic Yards in Downtown Brooklyn and Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, a renewed interest in the City from big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and a race to squeeze housing in anywhere possible, a new development culture has taken over the City. Though new construction is typically a sign of prosperity, many view this particuloar wave as an attempt to force feed the populace new development under the banner of rebuilding the City after 9/11.
Nowhere has this complaint picked up more steam than in Brooklyn, where the Atlantic Yards proposal has forced friends and neighbors to draw battle lines over the future of the borough. Developer Bruce Ratner’s plan would bring a new face to Brooklyn, and many residents who would eventually live in the project’s shadow are not pleased. Dan Goldstein is the head of the leading anti-Ratner group, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. In his opinion, the new push to change Brooklyn and the rest of the City is part of a plan by Bloomberg, Doctoroff and others to radically alter the landscape of the City without effectively dealing with the needs of the communities surrounding the projects. To Goldstein and others, it is as if they just don’t care.
“The Mayor sits back while Dan Doctoroff does the deals,” Goldstein said, pointing to not only the Atlantic Yards project but also the failed push to build a stadium for the New York Jets on the West Side of Manhattan, multiple retail developments handled by Doctoroff’s friends at the Related Companies and others. “The deals skirt any serious urban planning and don't involve needs assessments. The deals are developer driven, classic ‘City for Sale’ stuff. They are characterized by land giveaways and privatization of public space.”
The issue of land giveaways was the main charge against the West Side stadium, which entailed the MTA to more or less offer hand over their land on the West Side rail yards for essentially nothing. The recent approval of a plan to build a new Yankee Stadium in The Bronx fell victim to many of the same complaints. There, a new stadium is going up on what was parkland just days ago. And, like the Atlantic Yards project, the community feels it has been steamrolled for other corporate interests. Goldstein has a perfectly reasonable suggestion for how to fix this.
“What we need is a master plan in each borough, driven by planners, politicians, community boards, communities and developers working together, instead of sweetheart, backroom deals for the elite friends of the Administration,” said Goldstein. “Hopefully it's not too late for that.” Goldstein is the public face of the anti-development movement in Brooklyn, and his ideas for a master plan would likely include more contextual, and significantly smaller, development projects. According to one analyst, that might not be possible.
“There’s no new supply, and there’s little existing supply, but there is plenty of demand,” said Richard Persichetti, New York City research analyst at the commercial real estate firm Grubb & Ellis. Persichetti notes that planned development projects like the on for Ground Zero, as well as outer borough projects like Atlantic Yards and Silvercup Studios, are desperately needed. “Between now and the completion of the World Trade Center site, there’s no new space in Manhattan,” said Persichetti. “And there’s really no pressure valve for Manhattan.”
Persichetti notes that right now there are 40 major tenants looking for office space in Manhattan, requiring 100,000 square feet or more. Only 19 spaces are available, and many of them are already filled. Persichetti says the only possible solution is more development. And since those outer borough projects are still years away from completion and Midtown only has a handful of lots remaining where development could even take place, he recommends that investors take another look at a certain West Side property that won’t be featuring the football stadium that was once in the works. “I think you’ll see in Manhattan, outside of the World Trade Center site, more development on the far West Side,” said Persichetti. “There’s really nowhere else to go.”
