Planned hotel’s connection to criminals draws ire in East Village

The criminal backgrounds of two people trying to bring a hotel to the East Village have the community doubling down on its opposition efforts, the Villager reported. Advocates of the Merchant’s House Museum, a landmarked East Village property next to a proposed nine-story hotel development site at 27 East 4th Street, are hoping that bringing the pair’s outlaw past to light will help convince the Landmarks Preservation Commission to disapprove the project.

The two men are Edward Carroll, an associate principal at SRA Architecture + Engineering, which is the firm working on the hotel proposal, and Constantine Fotos, a former construction manager at Philips International Holding Corporation, who helped assemble the design team.

Carroll pleaded guilty to charges of obstructing justice and misleading a grand jury in 2002 in a federal corruption case, for which he served a five-month prison term, five months of home confinement and two years of supervised release. In 2005, Fotos pleaded guilty to illegal asbestos removal at 13-35 Astor Place and misleading a federal investigation into the incident.

“Mr. Carroll and Mr. Fotos are valued members of our team who have made some mistakes in the past,” Gary Spindler, the owner of the proposed hotel site and development partner, told the Villager.

As previously reported, Manhattan Community Board 2’s Landmarks Committee voted down the hotel proposal over fears that construction would affect the Merchant’s House. The Landmarks Preservation Commission will have a hearing on the project June 19. [The Villager]