Desperate Developers Push Poll, Empty Buildings in Gansevoort
Nearly three months ago, hundreds of neighbors showed up to a Landmarks Preservation Commission public hearing to oppose a plan demolish and build atop 1 and 2-story market buildings in the Gansevoort Market Historic District, replacing them with office buildings of up to 120 feet in height. The Commission has taken no action on the proposal.
But now, in an apparent sign of desperation, the owners and developers have embarked upon a two-pronged strategy: empty the buildings of tenants and allow them to lay fallow, and conduct a “push poll” disguised as a survey by an independent party, designed to convince neighbors that they must choose between a massive overdevelopment proposal (which the push poll calls “restoration”), and allowing the buildings to remain dilapidated.
Many GVSHP members were outraged to receive this deceptive and misleading “survey,” transparently designed to try to convey false information and choices about the project. Read more in this week’s The Villager newspaper.
No matter how they try to dress it up, this is a deeply unpopular proposal which would destroy the last remaining intact blockfront of historic market buildings in the Meatpacking District. This proposal runs completely counter to the reason why GVSHP successfully proposed and so many fought for landmark designation of this area in 2003.
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