‘Angel’ buyer saves Boys’ Club house
BY GABE HERMAN
After the Boys’ Club of New York
put its historic Harriman Clubhouse
up for sale last year, there
was an outcry from locals and concern
that the building would become just
more new luxury condos, further gentrifying
the East Village.
But an anonymous buyer has reportedly
come to the rescue, buying the
building at E. 10th St. and Avenue A
for $32 million — with plans to keep it
as a community space.
The Harrison Clubhouse has served
youth in the East Village and Lower
East Side since 1901, helping around 1
million boys and young men. Last year,
the Boys’ Club trustees put the building
up for sale without seeking much
input from the community. They said
there had been declining attendance in
recent years, though minutes from the
organization showed attendance at the
facility had actually been increasing.
Last fall, local politicians, Community
Board 3 members and residents
rallied outside the 50,000-square-foot
building, calling for postponement of
the sale.
“We must do everything within our
power to make sure that the clubhouse
building can continue to be a resource
for youth in our community,” said Assemblymember
Harvey Epstein at the
time. “We cannot allow our community
assets to be sold to the highest bidder
and turned into market-rate housing
that gentrifi es our neighborhood.”
But now a wealthy individual, who
wishes to remain anonymous, has
At a rally in fall 2018 outside the E. 10th St. Boys’ Club, City Councilmember
Carlina Rivera, left, and state Senator Brad Hoylman, right,
called for deferring the building’s planned sale.
bought the building through a foundation,
which intends to keep it for community
use, Crain’s fi rst reported.
“The goal is to keep this as a community
facility,” Paul Wolf, a real estate
FILE PHOTO
broker who represents the foundation,
told Crain’s. “The intent is to sell it to a
nonprofi t at a lower price than the purchase
price.”
St. Brigid’s Church, nearby on Avenue
B, was also saved in recent years
by an angel investor, who gave $20 million
for renovations to save the building
from destruction. The church reopened
in 2013.
As for the Harriman Clubhouse, state
Senator Brad Hoylman expressed gratitude
after the anonymous purchase.
“Whoever this angel investor is, I
want to thank them on behalf of our
community,” Holyman said in a statement.
“They are saving a century-old
community facility from being converted
into luxury condos or a high-priced
hotel, which sadly has been the real estate
narrative for the East Village.
“While I wish the Boys’ Club had
never put the Harriman Clubhouse
on the open market in the fi rst place,”
Hoylman continued, “I’m grateful to
them for fi nding this angel investor that
will allow young people and families in
our community to continue to benefi t
from this splendid facility.
“I’m hopeful that the unnamed foundation
will work with Community
Board 3, elected offi cials and other local
stakeholders to ensure that community
organizations have a place in the
new building, and that the Boys’ Club,
which is reportedly taking space in the
building, will decide to stay in this location
and continue to provide the essential
services it offers to boys and young
men.”
Hoylman was among the local politicians
who rallied last fall for deferring
the building’s sale, along with Epstein,
Manhattan Borough President Gale
Brewer and City Councilmember Carlina
Rivera.
Solar One is mulling moving to Murray Hill
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
Solar One is planting the seeds of a
new eco-pier.
The environmental nonprofi t
is pitching a plan to move its Stuyvesant
Cove Park programming 20 blocks
north to Waterside Pier, a barren 1-acre
space between E. 38th and E. 41st Sts.
The shift would give the obscure Murray
Hill pier new life, the nonprofi t
says, while simultaneously saving its
own, as well.
Solar One currently manages Stuyvesant
Cove Park, between E. 18th and E.
23rd Sts., and uses it to teach students,
visitors and interns about urban farming,
wildlife management and caring
for wildlife habitats in urban space. It
also uses Stuy Cove for foraging walks
where guides give lessons on ethnobotany
and the park’s history. According
to Emily Curtis-Murphy, Stuyvesant
Cove Park’s manager, Solar One’s programs
in the park serve about 50,000
people annually.
But Solar One’s work in Stuyvesant
Cove Park is threatened since the park
would be closed for construction of
the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project,
set to start next July. As part of the
E.S.C.R. project, the city intends to
construct a series of levees, fl oodwalls
and deployable gates from Montgomery
St. to E. 25th St. to protect the city
from fl ooding from hurricanes and sealevel
rise.
The resiliency project was developed
in response to Hurricane Sandy in
2012. Sandy fl ooded 17 percent of New
York City’s land mass, directly caused
the death of 147 people and cost the
city $19 billion in damages, according
to a report from the National Hurricane
Center. Construction on the resiliency
project is projected to take from two to
fi ve years.
According to preliminary renderings,
Solar One envisions Waterside Pier
becoming home to its solar shed, plus
a wildlife habitat, rows of planters —
680 in total, with 10,000 plants — and
also featuring some form of stormwater
management. According to Curtis-
Murphy, the organization has already
fi lled 60 portable containers with a variety
of plants from Stuy Cove Park.
Ideally, Waterside Pier would have
less passive park space than Stuy Cove
Park and be more agriculture based,
in order to facilitate more scientifi c research.
Curtis-Murphy is interested in
documenting to what extent wild food
grown and then harvested on Waterside
Pier would regerminate, and what
insects and birds naturally would make
their way to the space. These things
were not very well documented at Stuy
Cove, she said.
Ultimately, the space needs to meet
community needs and Curtis-Murphy
hopes that a public meeting about the
plan can be organized for early September.
“I really want to create something
for everybody — people in the neighborhood,
the wildlife, for all the school
kids that visit this park,” she said, “and
we need to work on that together.”
The proposal for Waterside Pier
was presented at a Community Board
6 Land Use and Waterfront Committee
meeting on June 24. Less than two
weeks earlier, the community board
voted on a resolution in favor to the
E.S.C.R. project — but with some conditions,
including a few that pertained
to Stuyvesant Cove Park and Waterside
Pier.
According to the resolution, in conjunction
with the E.S.C.R., the community
board asked for “improved activation
of Waterside Pier” with passive
and recreational spaces, and that the
city also explore the possibility of temporary
green space on the top level of
the Waterside Pier parking garage. C.B.
6 also recommended creating a reserve
fund to rebuild Stuyvesant Cove Park
after any fl ood destruction since, under
the resiliency plan, new fl ood barriers
would only be located to the west of the
park.
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