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New York

City wins long legal fight over Elizabeth Street Garden development

Pennrose-led Little Italy project to yield 123 affordable units

From left: Joseph Reiver, Eric Adams and the Elizabeth Street Garden (Getty, Elizabeth Street Garden)

From left: Joseph Reiver, Eric Adams and the Elizabeth Street Garden (Getty, Elizabeth Street Garden)

The lengthy battle over a senior housing project in Little Italy is over.

An appellate court on Tuesday unanimously dismissed concerns over the city’s environmental impact study at the site that have for years delayed construction at the Elizabeth Street Garden. 

The project, led by Philadelphia-based developer Pennrose, sparked a defense over the sanctity of the garden against plans to build a 123-unit apartment building. 

The city’s proposal to replace the half-acre statue garden with “0.15 acres of open space adjacent to the proposed apartment building with longer and more regular hours of public access” is sufficient to protect access to open space in the neighborhood, according to the decision.

Because the ruling was unanimous, there is no automatic right to appeal the decision. Those against the development could petition the court for another appeal, but without much hope of succeeding.

The development was long opposed by Allan Reiver, the gallerist who began leasing the vacant site from the city under a month-to-month lease in 1991. While open to the public, passersby could only access the garden through Reiver’s antique shop, which made him into the garden’s “cantankerous guardsman.”

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Following approval of the senior housing project by the City Council more than a decade ago, Reiver and other community activists launched a legal campaign in 2019 to save the garden. When Reiver died in May of last year, his son Joseph took up the cause.

After it took the presiding New York State Supreme Court Judge Debra James two years to make a ruling on the merits of the case, she rejected most arguments against the project but upheld concerns over the city’s environmental review, effectively shelving construction.  

The delay on environmental grounds raised concerns over whether well-intentioned environmental laws were being used to stymie legitimate real estate development. 

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Today’s ruling prevents the City Council from needing to approve the project a second time. The result is a boon to those in favor because its original proponent, Council member Margaret Chin, has since been replaced by Christopher Marte, who opposed the project. 

Reiver and legal representatives for the city did not immediately return a request for comment. Pennrose’s attorney declined to comment on the decision. 

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