Thanks, but no thanks.
That was the development team’s response to the Adams administration’s offer to build housing at another city-owned site if the developers dropped their lawsuit over their abandoned Elizabeth Street Garden project.
The administration demanded last week that Pennrose, Riseboro and Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester drop their legal fight over the garden project, known as Haven Green. In exchange, the city would designate the team as the developers of another city-owned site at 22 Suffolk Street.
In a Dec. 26 letter, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro gave the development team until Dec. 31 to abandon its lawsuit, which alleged that the administration did not have the legal authority to unilaterally declare Elizabeth Street Garden a city park.
Developers shared a letter with The Real Deal that they sent to Mastro on Wednesday, stating that the offer provided in the “waning hours of the Adams Administration is not sufficient for us to abandon litigation that we believe is in the public interest.”
The administration did not issue a request for proposals for the Suffolk Street site, intending to select the Haven Green developers using a “sole source” method. City agencies typically bid out the opportunity to build on city-owned sites to determine the best team for the job. (The team led by Pennrose went through a public bidding process to win Haven Green.)
When asked about the rejection, Mastro said, “Shame on them.”
“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink,” Mastro said in a statement. “We offered this group of affordable housing developers a chance to develop even more affordable housing at a neighboring site, but they turned it down because they would rather pursue a frivolous lawsuit over a site that has already been designated parkland and that they have no chance of reversing.”
The developers want to try their luck in court and with the next mayor, and they believe a few factors are on their side.
For one, they argue that in order to turn Elizabeth Street Garden into an official park, such a land-use change would need to go through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or Ulurp. Another factor in their favor is that incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani planned to evict the garden before Adams declared the site a city park.
“Ultimately, the new administration should have the opportunity to determine whether to issue a designation letter [for Suffolk Street], how to address the legal issues surrounding the Elizabeth Street site, and how best to accomplish a feasible, sustainable, and trustworthy affordable housing plan for the city,” the letter states.
The last-minute offer and rejection follow years’ worth of controversy over the site. In 2017, the city awarded the developers the right to build 123 units of senior housing at the garden site. After several years of litigation, the city won the ability to move forward with its eviction of the nonprofit running the garden, but when Mastro joined this administration this year, he halted plans for the housing project.
To make up for abandoning Haven Green, Mastro said the city would pursue housing projects on three other sites: 22 Suffolk Street, 156-166 Bowery Street and 100 Gold Street. Mastro also received assurances from local Council member Chris Marte that he would support the rezonings necessary to build thousands of units across these sites.
When Mamdani made clear that he would evict the garden once in office, the Adams administration designated the city-owned site as parkland. Mamdani said at the time that undoing that action would prove nearly impossible because it would require buy-in from the state legislature.
But if a court decides that designation isn’t valid, Mamdani’s options may open up.
The developers also note in their letter that ballot measures approved in November weaken an individual Council member’s ability to kill a rezoning that results in affordable housing.
“Although we hope the Council Member would support truly viable additional affordable housing sites regardless the outcome of the ongoing litigation, the reality is that the incoming administration does not need his approval to do so,” the letter states. “Thus, by also maintaining the Elizabeth Street site, our lawsuit advances the cause of affordable housing.”
Complicating matters is the fact that the Adams administration also reached a licensing agreement with the nonprofit Elizabeth Street Garden to continue operating the park through the next 10 years, with the option of two five-year extensions. The nonprofit has also agreed to pay $100,000 it owes in back rent for the site, in 10 annual installments over the next decade.
The developers indicate in their letter that the licensing agreement reinforced their decision to stick with their lawsuit.
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Politics
New York
Elizabeth Street Garden developers sue city over mayor's “lawless” act in declaring site a park
Affordable housing
New York
Elizabeth Street bargain: Adams administration offers developers alternative site if they drop lawsuit against city