SPURA’s Strain on Local Business
By Luciana DeStefano
The Lower East Side
For more than 30 years, Spiro Nakos has been operating the Olympic restaurant on the corner of Delancey and Essex Streets on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. After making a good living for three decades, he is now worried that the latest project to gentrify this once gritty neighborhood will put his livelihood in jeopardy.
After two and a half years of intensive meetings and negotiations, members of Community Board 3, and various city agencies voted unanimously to endorse a set of planning guidelines for the redevelopment of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA). Lining the south side of Delancey Street near the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, this land includes parking lots and a few businesses, including the Olympic.
Under the proposal, the five remaining Seward Park redevelopment parcels, as well as five additional lots north of Delancey Street, would intersperse commercial and residential sites with open spaces and parks. The guidelines calls for roughly 1,000 rental units; 40 percent to 60 percent would be market rate, 10 percent to 30 percent would go to middle and moderate-income earners and roughly 30 percent would be low income. The largest retailers would be “midbox,” no more than 40,000 square feet each.
The timeline for the approval process of the SPURA project started in February with the approval of the CB3 Guidelines. Now the ongoing discussion is about the Urban Design lead by Beyer Binder Belle (BBB), the architectural firm hired by CB3. The other steps have the following approval dates: The EIS Scoping -summer /fall 2011, EIS Development- fall2011/spring 2012, ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure)- spring 2012 and RFPs (Requests for Proposals)- early 2013. [kml_flashembed movie="http://ahammond.webng.com/lucsoundslide/publish_to_web/soundslider.swf" width="800" height="600" wmode="transparent" /]
Nakos, 63, whose business will be directly affected by the SPURA project, says that the situation is frustrated “ I was planning to renovate the restaurant but now I have to wait and see what happens.” Olympic sits on site number five, which under the SPURA plan will be used to accommodate apartments and stores in the two lower floors of the building.
Mr. Nakos restaurant’s Olympic opened in 1980 at 115 Delancey Street. The small place has two large glass windows, one facing Essex and the other facing Delancey. Two silver ceiling fans, eight small tables with red chairs and a small counter with red seats all help to compose the outdated atmosphere. It is a family business with Nakos and his son running the place together.
Mr. Nakos hopes that he can relocate his restaurant in the building but he is afraid that after the new construction he won’t be able to afford the rent. Presently, he pays $3,700 a month and he estimates that the rent can reach as high as $7,000. Mr. Nakos commented that the building across the street, which is already a private building, costs $7,000 to rent.
Another problem Mr. Nakos is facing is that he doesn’t have a lease for more than 10 years. This could be an even bigger problem. It will be difficult to fight for a space in the new construction because the city doesn’t have any legal ties with his business. He said that “as far as I know this block will be the first one to go.”
Nakos is far from the only businessman to express his concerns about the proposed changes. Jacob Goldman, 39, owner of LoHo Realty for 15 years and an active member of the community said: “My particular thoughts on the SPURA project is that the city shouldn’t be giving extra lots at his time because the real estate is depressed. It has a lot of value and giving up lots at this time is not a business decision.” He is in favor of including commercial stores, a movie theater, amenities that are currently unavailable in the neighborhood.
Mr. Goldman is not happy that the city added extra housing buildings, which weren’t in the first plan. He thinks adding more low-income housing will only bring increased poverty to the Lower East Side.
According to Mr. Jacob, the Lower East Side is the neighborhood in Manhattan with the second highest concentration of the low-income housing and residents. The first neighborhood with the greatest concentration of low income housing is Harlem. “The community needs more economic diversity,” Mr. Goldman said.
Jade Fountain Liquor Store, next door to the Olympic restaurant, at 123 Delancey, has existed since 1992. Like Olympic, Jade Fountain has an uncertain future after the SPURA construction. The cashier of the store, who didn’t want to be identified, said that the store has been there for a long time and she knows that some construction will happen but is uncertain exactly when. With regards to showing no knowledge about the big change that is about to occur in the neighborhood and to her business, the cashier states, “So far the business is still here and we will continue to work.”
Also, the north side of Delancey Street will be affected by the SPURA project. There is the Essex Street Market, which has been part of the neighborhood since 1940. It was created by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia to give street merchants a place to do business. Today there are 27 merchants including an art gallery, meat & fish, restaurants and fruit stands.
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/wLWPWT5vg0Y” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The future of the Essex Street market will be decided at the next board meeting on May 25th. Cynthia Lamb, 44, who started the website savetheessexstreetmarket.org which calls for the preservation of the market, said that she has lots of work to do to continue getting the word out in the neighborhood about saving the Essex Street Market, “many folks I’ve spoken to assumed it was a landmarked institution already!”
But the post-agreement Seward Park Urban Renewal Area already has brought up some concerns. The locals are questioning whether the affordable housing will truly be affordable and what future will be left for the few small businesses.
The Lower East Side has traditionally been an immigrant, working class neighborhood, but throughout the last decade gentrification has occurred at a rapid rate. Some believe the SPURA project is based on greed and will destroy the neighborhood’s history. Although, Mr. Goldman who has business in the Lower East Side doesn’t approve the extra housing proposed by the SPURA plan he pointed out that “ gentrification can benefit everybody.”