The Empire Page

For the past few years the residents of Park West Village on Manhattan’s Upper West Side have become accoustomed to the lack of consideration showed by the Chetrit Organization which is developing the tall buildings of Columbus Square in the middle of the complex. The buildings were too tall and took up treasured open space, there was no meaningful effort to contain the dust which caused illness to residents during excavation,  and having one existing building  in danger of collapse because of lack care of supports at the construction site were just a few of what Park West Village residents endured due to this project and Chetrit showed little care for their needs. But as the first building was completed and Park West Village residents were resigned to the development being completed Chetrit had one more trick up its sleeve.

One of the last remaining open spaces was reserved for community use was by the parking lot on the northern end of the complex. In plans and renderings this was shown to be for a playground or other recreational use. Unbeknownst to any other stakeholders, Chetrit traded the development rights for this site for the rights the Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged has on top of its building at 106th Street.  This means the community facility will be a planned 22 story building for the Jewish Home while Chetrit will be able to build a large building on 106th street. This is a backhanded deal of of the worst kind, particularly because when 97-110th street was downzoned, the Jewish Home got a last minute cut-outs after making a number of promises on size and cooperation with the community.

It has not taken long for the community to mobilize against this backroom deal. Within two days of hearing of the deal, Councilmember Melissa Mark Viverito and other elected officials and community leaders held a press conference denouncing it. A few days after that hundreds attended a town hall meeting called by the Councilmember and attended by her Senator Bill Perkins, Borough President Scott Stringer and others. Plans to fight the land swap on a number of fronts have begun to take shape and the community is mobilized. 

While we all respect the work the Jewish Home does for seniors, they already got a concession to allowed to develop a building on their site higher than what is currently allowed in the surrounding neighborhood, breaking its word and betraying the trust of the neighborhood is unacceptable. Chetrit has shown itself to be the least concerned type of developer and it is an imporant example to show to the City as a whole that the rights of residents cannot be trampled on and that developers cannot do anything they please.