The day before CityLand met with Manhattan Community Board 9’s Pat Jones, Borough President Scott Stringer announced his recommendation in support of Columbia University’s expansion plan—the same plan Community Board 9 rejected because it conflicts with the proposed development plan Ms. Jones helped draft. While most people would be deflated by such a turn of events, Ms. Jones remained calm and focused, as she sat down with CityLand to discuss the future of Manhattanville.

Raised in Corona, and a graduate of Flushing High School, Ms. Jones has only left the city for the four years that she attended Michigan State University. She returned to New York to work for JP Morgan, eventually becoming a Managing Director. After settling into a brownstone in the Hamilton Heights Historic District, Ms. Jones volunteered to work at her community board in 2002. In addition to her position as Vice-Chair for Community Board 9, Ms. Jones is the Chair of the West Harlem Development Corporation and a board member of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. (more…)

Final Manhattan Avenue Historic District. Image: LPC.

Manhattan Avenue historic district to encompass 40 buildings. Landmarks unanimously designated the Manhattan Avenue Historic District, a 40-building district that encompasses several sets of row houses built between 1886 and 1889 on West 105th and West 106th Streets and Manhattan Avenue. Included among the buildings are row houses designed by Charles Pierrepont Gilbert, who is also noted for designs of 20 houses within the Park Slope Historic District and a mansion for F.W. Woolworth. The district encompasses an array of architectural styles, including Gothic, Queen Anne and Romanesque.

In voting to approve, Commissioner Margery Perlmutter remarked on the consistency of the buildings’ designs, calling it “unusual for the Upper West Side” and saying its streets feel more like Brooklyn’s. (more…)

Comprised of Battery Park City, the Financial District, South Street Seaport, and Tribeca, the neighborhoods of Manhattan Community Board 1 are in the midst of a period of tremendous growth and development. New apartment buildings are bringing thousands of new residents to the district. At the same time, large redevelopment projects, such as the World Trade Center, promise to return millions of square feet of office space along with expanded retail and cultural spaces. Under the leadership of Julie Menin, Community Board 1 is working hard to “bring a holistic approach” to development, one that takes into account the community’s needs. CityLand talked to Menin about the important issues facing Lower Manhattan and how the Board is preparing for the future.

A Rising Voice. Menin grew up in Washington D.C. and first moved to the City to attend Columbia University. After obtaining a political science degree, she studied law at Northwestern University, and then moved back to D.C. to begin her career. In 2000, after eight years as a regulatory lawyer, Menin left her practice and opened Vine, a restaurant located on Broad Street across from the New York Stock Exchange. After 9/11, her business, like so many others in the downtown area, suffered economically. Menin said Vine and eight other businesses on Broad Street ultimately closed, in part due to new security measures that closed the street. (more…)

The proposed height provision had, as approved by the Planning Commission, been applicable citywide. On February 28, 2007, the City Council approved the four linked applications for the mixed-use development of West 60th Street Associates, LLC with significant modifications to the developer’s proposed citywide zoning change on bulk.

West 60th originally proposed a zoning text amendment that would allow developers of general, large-scale developments located in certain commercial districts to modify the height factor calculation, a bulk measurement, if it resulted in better site plans and open space. As approved by the Planning Commission, the new bulk waiver special permit would apply to ten community districts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. 4 CityLand 4 (Feb. 15, 2007). (more…)

Manhattan College and Pathmark partner on new supermarket and campus parking garage. On June 21, 2006, the Planning Commission unanimously approved an application made by Manhattan College to permit construction of a six-level parking garage/supermarket structure on Broadway and Manhattan College Parkway in the Bronx. The Commission also approved a revocable consent to allow a pedestrian bridge to connect the market and garage to the Manhattan College campus.

The college partnered with the Pathmark supermarket chain to fund the project which will include a 72,734-square-foot, ground-floor supermarket, 187 parking spaces on the second floor for customers, and 738 parking spaces on the remaining four floors for the campus community. The development would be located on an 85,000-square-foot lot owned by Manhattan College and currently used as a maintenance facility and parking lot that fronts both Broadway and Manhattan College Parkway. Pedestrian and car access to the supermarket would be on Broadway. The Manhattan College parking lot would be accessible from Manhattan College Parkway. (more…)