Grave situation for Trump as bones found at site

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 12 / December 15 - 21, 2006

By Lincoln Anderson

The discovery of human remains at the site of the planned Trump Soho condo-hotel at Spring and Varick Sts. led the Department of Buildings on Tuesday to issue a stop-work order for the project.

Speaking on Tuesday, Jennifer Givner, a D.O.B. spokesperson, said the remains had been removed by the city’s medical examiner for closer inspection, and that D.O.B., the M.E. and the Landmarks Preservation Commission were working with the developer on what the next step would be. L.P.C. has an archaeologist on staff, she noted.

On Wednesday, Lisi de Bourbon, Landmarks spokesperson, said that L.P.C. has no jurisdiction over the site, since it’s not a city landmark or in a designated historic district. She said Landmarks has been offering advice to the developers — Trump and Bayrock/Sapir — mainly that they retain their own archaeologist, and that the developers had done so.

She said the investigation is being privately handled by the developers’ archaeologist, part of whose job is to try to identify the remains and contact descendants.

“Trump’s people have hired an archaeologist and are in the process of figuring out what to do with the remains,” de Bourbon said. “We’ve been asked to lend our help, so we are. We have no jurisdiction over it, but we are helping them in any way we can.”

Buildings spokesperson Givner said it was a “unique case” and that she couldn’t speculate on how long the stop-work order might remain in effect.

The South Village area was once known as “Little Africa,” home to a community of freed slaves who were used by the Dutch as a buffer between New Amsterdam and the Native Americans. Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation — who has been a leading critic of the planned 45-story condo-hotel — said he contacted the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem to find out more about the possible origins of the remains.

Through his research, Berman learned that the site was formerly home to the city’s oldest Presbyterian church, which was razed in the 1960s and became a parking lot. The first church was built at the site in 1811. It had a mixed-race congregation, and in 1834 anti-abolitionists, vowing to “wipe out the Presbyterian barn,” attacked the church, tearing off its doors and throwing the pews into the street. A new church was erected at the spot in 1836, standing until 1963, when the Presbytery decided to close it due to changed neighborhood demographics and a dwindling and aging congregation.

Ellen Borakove, a spokesperson for the city’s medical examiner, said that “more than 20 historic bones” had been removed from the site and that they come from more than one body. She couldn’t give more details on what type of bones they are. She said they’re being kept for safekeeping at the M.E.’s office until the developer decides what to do with them.

“We can’t just leave bones lying on the street,” she noted.

Fifteen years ago, the discovery of an African burial ground Downtown at Duane and Elk Sts. permanently blocked the construction of a federal building there.

On Wednesday, the developers were quoted in the Post as saying that the spot where the remains were found would be an open plaza and not covered by the building.

Wednesday afternoon, the project foreman and a group of construction workers could be seen leaving the shutdown site for the day. Among them was a man in a green trench coat, carrying a black briefcase; speaking into a cell phone as he walked off, he could be overheard saying something about being “proactive.”

Berman said the remains must be treated properly — and that he doesn’t feel comfortable entrusting the developers to do that.

“The site clearly has layers of historic value,” he said. “Whoever’s bodies they are, they deserve a certain level of respect and care — and I don’t think it should be left to Trump to do that. Trump’s driving motivation is making a killing on this site — so I don’t trust him. He has a vested interest in plowing ahead with his construction, so he’s not the best person to make an evaluation. Nothing should be done until a full, independent investigation has taken place.”

A Trump Organization spokesperson did not return a call for comment by press time.

Berman said if Landmarks felt the construction site warranted consideration of landmark designation it could certainly assert its jurisdiction.

However, Landmarks’ De Bourbon said she couldn’t immediately give an answer as to whether or how that could possibly happen.

Berman and other opponents have been fighting the condo-hotel, charging that people will be living in the condos year-round, in violation of the site’s

manufacturing zoning in the northern end of Hudson Square on Soho’s western edge. The city hasn’t issued a permit for the building yet, but has issued permits

allowing excavation of the site and construction of the building’s foundation.

Two prior applications for the building permit were denied. Givner said D.O.B. is waiting for Trump to resubmit the application and will make its decision based on the new application.

However, realtors for Trump on their Web site recently were marketing the condos as potentially for use as “primary residence,” and the city’s tourist agency, NYC & Co., also had a listing for the condo-hotel advertising that the units were for “year-round” occupancy. Both listings have since been pulled off the Web. Asked if what was shown on these Web sites would affect Buildings’ decision, Givner said they were just “advertising” and “marketing” and that Buildings will make its decision based on “use” after evaluating Trump’s new application once it comes in. But she said D.O.B. won’t approve any residential use at the site.

“We’re not ignoring these advertisements. We see them,” Givner said. “That’s not the permitted use for this type of neighborhood and the department’s not going to approve plans for long-term residence.”

Berman said he was “appalled” to hear that D.O.B. won’t take the Web listings into account in making its decision, which it will base purely on the application.

“It’s outrageous,” he said. “What more evidence do they need to be presented with? Everyone except the city and D.O.B. gets it that this is going to be used as residences. Trump’s realtors get it, Trump gets it, the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau [former name of NYC & Co.] gets it. Everyone except D.O.B. and the city seems to get it.”

Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, said if the condo-hotel’s units really won’t be residential, “Therefore it [the Web listings] must be deceptive advertising — so shouldn’t it be prosecuted? It’s a smoking gun. The city is being like an ostrich sticking its head in the ground.”

Asked what’s the harm of allowing a residential condo-hotel in a manufacturing district, Berman said if this one is allowed to slip in it will lead to a flood of similar luxury condo-hotels in Tribeca, the Garment District, parts of the Flatiron District, Hudson Square, the Far West Village south of Barrow St., Noho and Soho, West Chelsea (west of 10th Ave.; and along 15th St. west of Ninth Ave.) and far west Hell’s Kitchen (west of 11th Ave.).

“Mark my words, you will see a boom in condo-hotels in manufacturing zones as soon as the city allows this,” he said. “If we’re going to open up manufacturing zones to luxury residences, there should be aboveboard hearings and reviews.”