Pols are right to check out Trump hotel

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 8 / November 17 - 23, 2006

Our local elected officials are working with the Department of Buildings to negotiate a restrictive declaration for the contested 45-story condo-hotel planned by Bayrock/Sapir and Donald Trump on Spring St. Clearly, the developers must negotiate, because right now all they have is a permit to dig a hole: D.O.B. has so far withheld issuing a building permit for the actual building.

The elected officials and Buildings are proposing that tenants or owners of the condo-hotel’s units only be allowed to stay for up to 30 days, after which they would have to leave for at least five days before being able to return.

The maximum number of days any owner or sublessor would be allowed to stay in one of the condo-hotel units would be 90 to 150 days in any one year. All of these specifics are still being negotiated.

It’s said construction of this condo-hotel allegedly may have some supervision by a winner of Trump’s reality show, “The Apprentice.” But the actual reality is that allowing what is essentially a stealth residential project to be built will undermine the fabric of manufacturing-zoned neighborhoods and impact and change the character of neighboring areas, in this case, Hudson Square and Soho, and in the future, west Chelsea and the Meat Market.

The building’s sheer height is simply inappropriate for the area. The only reason the developers are undertaking such a mammoth project, it seems, is because they hope they will be able to operate it as a de facto residential building — the highest-end use in this part of Manhattan.

The developers say an owner could rent out a unit to others or live there him- or herself.

While condo-hotels do exist in the city in commercial districts, this would be a first, since it’s in a manufacturing district. In effect, to set a precedent by approving this convoluted project would mean allowing luxury housing to spread into areas of the city for which it simply is not zoned, without the necessary public and municipal reviews.

Regarding the restrictive declaration: Who will be insuring that the owners/sublessors vacate at the appropriate dates or don’t surpass their yearly allotment of days? One can imagine a lot of name-shuffling to avoid the appearance of stays longer than 30 days. The officials say they’re working on inspection and enforcement provisions. But we need more details.

Furthermore, groups like Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation aren’t buying into the restrictive declaration. They want to keep fighting the project, feeling a hotel with a 90-day occupancy simply is not a transient hotel, the only type allowed under the zoning. The city must carefully evaluate whether this type of residency in an out-of-scale glass tower in a manufacturing district really meets the criteria for approval. As of now — restrictive declaration or not — we feel it definitely does not.