The Community Board 2 Land Use Committee will be holding another hearing this coming Wednesday on TF Cornerstone’s application to amend the restrictive declaration (RD-93) on the northwest corner of the West Coast Apartments building (the currently vacant 4700 sq/ft ground floor space at the corner of Gansevoort and West Street):

Wednesday, July 13, 6:30pm
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Place, Room 520
(near the Northeast corner of Washington Sq Park)

Their goal is to combine this space with an adjacent vacant space to the east to create an 8,100 sq/ft space (plus another 3,500 sq/ft in the basement) which would be leased for a HUGE restaurant operation – we’re talking a capacity of several hundred seats!  A year ago, TF Cornerstone attempted to illegally lease this space for restaurant use in violation of the restrictive declaration.

We have previously said that we would oppose  market-rate retail or restaurant uses in this location, but would support amending the restrictive declaration to allow uses by non-profit organizations. TF Cornerstone is apparently going to offer a deal whereby in return for lifting the restrictive declaration on the 4700 sq/ft space at Gansevoort and West, they would make a significantly smaller space in the West Coast building fronting Horatio Street available for non-profit use.

The lobbyist that TF Cornerstone has hired to push this application is James Capalino, who  has been involved in other attempts to remove property restrictions which were intended to  benefit the community.  He represented the companies involved in the recent Rivington Street nursing home scandal; he is also the lobbyist for  Aurora Capital, which has said that it will apply to change the restrictive declaration limiting uses on the site of its massive Gansevoort development project.

This hearing is an opportunity to send a message that the community must be fully engaged in the process of negotiating any future attempts to change restrictive declarations, such as the one governing Aurora’s Gansevoort site, and that any changes should  only be permitted if they benefit the community and the community agrees to them.

More info is here.