Fed up at Fedora: Backyard bid is nixed
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
Sarah Jessica Parker may have endorsed
Fedora restaurant’s proposed
expansion — but don’t try
telling that to Community Board 2.
The Village board last Thursday voted
nearly unanimously to recommend
denial of Gabe Stulman’s application
for his restaurant to “extend its licensed
premises” to the rear yard of the fourstory
townhouse it’s located in.
In other words, Stulman is seeking
an extension of Fedora’s existing liquor
license into the backyard addition he
hopes to create — so that, along with
food, he can serve drinks in the new
space, too.
The meeting was in the lower hall at
St. Anthony of Padua Church, at Sullivan
and Houston Sts. There was discussion
among C.B. 2 members before their
vote, plus members of the public also
testifi ed for and against the plan.
Among the deciding factors ultimately
swaying the board’s advisory vote was
that they could not recommend or deny
a liquor license for the new proposed
structure — since it does not even exist
yet. The board’s resolution also noted
that when Stulman fi rst came to the
board seeking a liquor license — after
he took over the historic restaurant
around nine years ago — he said there
would be neither a sidewalk cafe nor use
of the backyard garden.
The restaurant, at 239 W. Fourth St.,
between Charles and W. 10th Sts., has
the feeling of a swank speakeasy and
features “refi ned global fare.”
The previous week, on Thurs., March
14, Parker, the iconic “Sex and the City”
actress, spoke in favor of Stulman’s application
at a marathon meeting of the
C.B. 2 State Liquor Authority Committee,
the Post’s Page Six reported.
The star praised Fedora’s fare and the
operators as “responsible, respectful and
The backyard of Fedora, in a pre-
2010 photo, from before Gabe
Stulman started operating the
restaurant. Stulman has since
added mechanical systems (not
shown in the photo above) on the
low rooftop of Fedora at the rear
of the current restaurant, at left.
hospitable.” She was not at last week’s
C.B. 2 full-board vote, however.
Stulman initially came before the
board in February, saying he planned
to extend the restaurant into the backyard
for an open-air seasonal-use dining
area with seven tables and 17 seats. But
neighbors living in the so-called “residential
doughnut” around the restaurant’s
rear yard raised an outcry.
A month later, Stulman returned to
C.B. 2 saying he now planned to enclose
the rear yard with a one-story “brick and
mortar” addition with “one fi xed skylight
and fi xed windows…on the very rear of
the structure.” Neighbors say they are
already bothered by mechanical systems
from the restaurant that are located on a
low rooftop right next to the garden.
Fedora’s operating hours are 5 p.m. to
2 a.m. every day.
Making the whole matter harder for
C.B. 2 members to decipher, Stulman
notably failed to provide any renderings
of the planned addition at previous
S.L.A. committee meetings. However,
before this Thursday night’s full-board
vote, a woman went around the room,
handing each person a packet of stapled
papers with some renderings and fl oor
plans of the proposed new 15-foot-by-20
-foot addition.
Before the vote, Stulman claimed
strong backing from neighbors.
“In the immediate ‘donut’ surrounding
Fedora, we have more support than
opposition,” he stated.
Alta Indelman, the architect of the
planned add-on, also spoke, vouching,
“It’s actually a very short addition. It’s
really only about 7 feet 3 inches high
inside. … It’s what we call, ‘garden level,’”
she said of the low-rise structure.
Indelman said that the place’s capacity
— currently, 19 tables with 56 seats,
and 12 bar stools — would not change.
“It’s simply elbow room,” she said.
When Carter Booth, the C.B. 2 chairperson,
criticized Stulman for not having
presented any designs of the space at
previous committee meetings, Indelman
responded, “These kind of drawings
take time.”
Andre Becker, who lives on Washington
Place, spoke in favor of Fedora.
“They are the ideal neighbor,” he said.
“This is what we moved here for. This is
what the Village really is.”
However, Augustine Hope, a neighbor
and member of the West Village
Home Owners Association, said Stulman
“must win trust” from local residents.
Hope noted that Stulman illegally
used a subbasement as a private candlelit
event space.
As the discussion went on, Stulman,
who sports a signature bushy black
beard, sat by himself in the audience in
the last row of chairs, focusing intensely
on the goings-on. Asked for comment —
such as why Parker was not there again
for the full-board vote — he said, “I can’t
talk about that. I’m super-emotionally
invested in this right now.” He gave an
address for a P.R. rep.
Tom Connor, one of the more probusiness
members of C.B. 2, said neighbors’
main concern seemed to be that
constructing the new addition in the
cramped backyard would damage their
buildings. He recommended “laying
over” the issue till next month.
Kristin Shea, from the board’s S.L.A.
Committee, said Stulman had, basically,
not been forthcoming with details.
“We just wanted facts,” she said.
Katy Bordonaro, another board
member, put it succinctly, saying, “The
S.L.A. Committee doesn’t license space
that doesn’t exist. We’re sort of licensing
a theoretical space — and that’s not
something we do.”
C.B. 2 Chairperson Booth, however,
said the full board should vote on a
resolution that night, otherwise Stulman
might apply to the actual licensegranting
state agency — the S.L.A. —
without C.B. 2 having weighed in on
the matter. Everyone, even the board’s
typically pro-business members, voted
to recommend denial of the application,
except for Aaron, who recused herself,
after noting her husband is an investor
in Stulman’s restaurants.
Afterward, Stulman got up and
grabbed his white umbrella, while fl inging
a tote bag across his shoulder. Asked
for comment, he said tersely, “I don’t understand
how that works,” then turned
and walked out.
Nevertheless, at the same meeting,
C.B. 2 unanimously recommended approval
of a liquor license for a different
Stulman eatery, the new Marlinspike
Hall, at the former Great Jones Cafe
space, at 54 Great Jones St.
Hoylman: Pied-a-terre tax is the right step
BY GABE HERMAN
As lawmakers in Albany are working
to shape the budget for the
2019-20 fi scal year, state Senator
Brad Hoylman’s pied-a-terre tax has been
included in a Senate budget resolution.
Hoylman, whose district includes the
Village, part of the East Village, Stuyvesant
Town and much of Midtown, has
been pushing for the tax since 2014.
If approved, the measure would charge
people with expensive homes that are not
used as a primary residence.
The tax would raise an estimated $650
million annually for the city. It would apply
to residences worth more than $5 million.
Fees and rates would be charged on
an increasing scale as properties increase
in value.
For apartments valued between $5 million
and $6 million, there would be a 0.5
percent tax on the value above $5 million.
The highest rate would be for properties
worth more than $25 million, which
would be charged a fee of $370,000, plus
a 4 percent tax for all value after the $25
million.
The budget resolution would fund programs
for at-risk New Yorkers, including
for homeless and runaway youth and people
facing foreclosure.
“The inclusion of my pied-a-terre tax in
the Senate budget — which I’ve been fi ghting
to pass with Assemblymember Deborah
Glick since 2014 — would provide
critical new revenue to sustain New York
City’s infrastructure,” Hoylman said.
“It is not unreasonable to ask those who
can afford to buy a $238 million second
home in New York to pay a little more to
keep our subways and schools running.”
Momentum for a pied-a-terre tax has
picked up rapidly since January, when
hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffi n bought
a $238 million penthouse at 220 Central
Park South.
It was the largest home purchase in U.S.
history. Griffi n is the richest man in Illinois
and said he would use the Midtown penthouse
when he was in town.
Since then, city councilmembers have
called for a tax at the city level, including
Margaret Chin and Mark Levine.
On Jan. 25, City Council Speaker Corey
Johnson tweeted about the $238 million
penthouse .
“Enough,” he posted. “It’s time for a
pied-a-terre tax. We should tax luxury
non-primary residences, like this one likely
will be.”
Earlier in March, Governor Andrew
Cuomo said he supported a pied-a-terre
tax as a way to help fund the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority and improve the
city’s subway system.
Hoylman said the tax being included
in the budget refl ects the Senate’s having
turned blue as a result of the last election.
“With a new Democratic majority comes
new priorities,” he said. “Under the leadership
of Senate Majority Leader Andrea
Stewart-Cousins, we’ve advanced a budget
that fi ghts for the needs of all New Yorkers
— not just the wealthiest 1 percent.”
8 March 28, 2019 TVG Schneps Media