Ignoring vehement community objections and the more muted misgivings of local City Council Member Erik Bottcher, the city is proceeding with plans for a 60-story, 600-foot-tall luxury residential spire at the current site of the Gansevoort Meat Market, on Little West 12th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in the Meatpacking District.
The city is paying the meat market $31 million to exit the city-owned property early, in order to develop Gansevoort Square, described as a “bold redevelopment” that “will transform the approximately 66,000 square feet…into mixed-income housing units, new open space, and the opportunity to expand the Whitney Museum of American Art and the High Line.”
In plans for the project, the Whitney—which had the right of first refusal for the site—will double in size, and the Highline will build a new maintenance facility. The plan allocates 38,471 square feet to the Whitney expansion, 6,322 square feet to the Highline, and 10,000 square feet to the 60-story residential spire.
Public opposition
The existence of the Gansevoort Square Project was announced in October. Although the city was reportedly working with a design consultant for a year, the controversial luxury spire was not revealed to the public or the community board until shortly before the public comment period. At three public meetings during the winter holidays, speakers overwhelmingly condemned the spire—more than twice the height of the nearby Standard Hotel—with comments comparing it to a conspicuous “sore thumb” and “raised middle finger.”
Over the objections of the community, Community Board 2 (CB 2), and Council Member Bottcher, on January 29th, the city’s Economic Development Corporation issued a “request for proposals (RFP)” to private developers, seeking proposals to build the super-tall spire, with up to 600 housing units plus ground floor retail.
On January 28th, Council Member Bottcher posted online that while he “strongly believes in the need to build housing in all neighborhoods” the 60-story spire was “obviously out of scale for the Meatpacking District” and that he had asked the city to “pause releasing this RFP and instead issue one with a more appropriate height.”
He followed up with a more jocular post, his plaint posing as query: “Is it possible to be both YIMBY while also feeling that 60 stories is a tad bit tall for the West Village? Asking for a friend.”
His office declined to issue a statement following the release of the RFP the next day.
CB 2 seeks 100% affordable
In keeping with the law offering tax abatements to real estate developers who build affordable housing, the RFP requires that a quarter of the spire’s housing units be permanently affordable, targeted to households who make 60 percent of the “area median income” or about $93,000 for a family of four. The city has expressed hope that developers responding to the RFP will propose projects where ideally 50 percent of the housing will be “affordable”—with the additional 25 percent designated for households who make up to 120 percent of the AMI or, for a family of four, about $186,000.
A week before the release of the RFP, CB 2 passed a resolution urging the city to pause the project, and to instead pony up the money—an estimated $325 million—to construct a redesigned project where 100 percent of the housing would be permanently affordable, and potentially available to lower-income households.
CB 2 characterized $325 million as “a paltry amount” relative to the $3.7 billion the city just contracted to build a new Manhattan jail and noted that the cost would constitute a mere 1.3 percent of the $24.5 billion allocated for affordable housing in the city budget.
The resolution also called on the city to consider cantilever construction and mixed use buildings throughout the full 66,000 square foot site, strategies “to maximize affordable housing and reduce height.” Citing MoMA’s expansion in 2019, which included residential units above the museum, CB 2 suggested that the Whitney might also incorporate affordable housing as part of its expansion.
Yet as Eugene Yoo, chair of CB 2’s Land Use Committee, explained following a meeting with the EDC and the Mayor’s office, the city deems both the spire and its limited percentage of affordable units as integral to the plan. “The city has told us in no uncertain terms that the height is by design….They are hoping that the luxurious [units] at the top [will] subsidize the affordable housing that they’re going to build….That’s how they’re planning on making the math work….They expect the hyper-tall units to be generating a large amount of the rent.”
In its public presentation, the EDC also touted the “taller, skinnier building” as having “less of an impact when it comes to things like shadows,” presumably important to the High Line.
In addition, Yoo reported that the city had said it was reserving 100 percent affordable housing projects “for those areas that ‘really need it,’ which are going to be in the outer boroughs.”
According to Yoo, the city portrayed the high market rents in the Meatpacking District not as a bug, but as a highly desirable feature, an opportunity to design private development where super-luxury rents could subsidize below market rentals, without major government subsidy.
What’s next?
Proposals are due April 30th to the EDC, and the agency anticipates selecting a developer by the end of 2025.
Under City Charter provisions, the city’s review process then kicks in. For Gansevoort Square, this process is expected to occur in 2026 and 2027.
Of note, the Mayor convened a new charter revision commission in December, and some believe the commission will seek to eliminate the review process, which now gives the Borough President and the City Council significant power to change or halt certain development projects, including those on city-owned land.
Currently, the Borough President plays a key role in moving the project forward—and the project must ultimately secure the approval of the local Council Member and finally the full Council (the Mayor can veto, but remains subject to an override).
Andrew Berman, the executive director of Village Preservation and a lead player in the unsuccessful campaign to halt the spire RFP, told the Village Star-Revue that he is encouraged by the “several other layers of public review” that must occur before “this outrageous plan” can be carried out.
“This fight is not over,” he declared.
(photo illustration courtesy of Village Preservation)
It is laughable what is considered “affordable” housing in the WV! Teachers, nurses, retirees, retail workers, service industry workers, etc. are completely locked out. If the income requirements for SCRIE and DRIE programs are not updated to reflect the need for a higher maximum income, even more of us will be left out in the cold. What say you, local reps?