NEIGHBORHOOD IN WAITING

To Distant Shores, a photograph by Richard Capuozzo

DREAMS AND SCHEMES
ON HOLD. FOR NOW.

What's next for St. George? At the moment, the neighborhood's future appears as opaque as Dick Capuozzo's image, above. What's more certain are long-standing fundamentals.

1. The economic downturn is global, not St. George-specific. Whether or not there's a significant turnaround in the economy later than sooner, this will still be a good place to live, work, and conduct business.

2. St. George will continue to be a center for transportation and borough government.

3. And it will move, albeit very slowly at times, to solidify its emerging identity as a destination for tourists and locals offering art, dining and entertainment in a walkable waterfront setting.

Not the actual, generic,
pre-fab multi-story
parking behemoth
now being assembled
on St. Marks Place
near Victory Boulevard,
but close enough.
(Photo by Linda Brumbaugh)

And one thing more. St. George will also be the home of the Richmond County Courthouse, to be built on the site of the present municipal parking lot.

Criminal Court, now in Stapleton, will relocate to the new facility as will Family Court, now in a very overcrowded landmark building nearby on Richmond Terrace at Hamilton Avenue in St. George. Civil Court will remain in West Brighton.

A SLIGHT ADJUSTMENT

The fantasy future imagined for St. George--and not only among the developer and business crowd--used to be that hordes of Williamsburg wannabes were about to haul themselves and their shopping-and-dining lifestyles to our neighborhood, which, the developers predicted, would become The NEW (choose one) Park Slope, Fort Greene, Jersey City, Hoboken, Long Island City or Red Hook.

Or as the developer line would have it, 'Downtown Staten Island.'  A very clever name, actually. So lacking in specificity, you can attach it to the most forlorn (and for sale) back alley in Clifton or Concord, and who's to say you're wrong?

But even with Williamsburgers' trust funds drying up and and unemployed MBAs waiting tables, the fantasy hasn't gone away; it's made some facade alterations, that's all.

JUSTICE AND JURISPRUDENCE

The theme has changed from Shopping and Dining to Justice and Jurisprudence. The new theme was prompted by the only game in town at the moment, the new consolidated courthouse served by the sort of multi-story car-stack (not the actual one, but a generic twin) shown above, right.

This parking-lot-in-the-air is intended to compensate for and even add, as the borough president boasts, to the number of parking spaces "lost" to the forthcoming construction of a consolidated county courthouse upland toward Hyatt Street.

The fundamentals are in place and--barring a game-changing event no one can predict-- will remain so. And a new government facility is coming, bringing with it the sorts of demands (and not just for high-end restaurants) that the borough president, City Planning, the Chamber of Commerce and SIEDC ought to be preparing for now.

MEANWHILE,
THE NEIGHBORHOOD WAITS

Friends who own a modest one-family rowhouse-style building opposite the almost finished multi-level public parking behemoth have big plans.

Though they've lived in that house for decades, they say it's time to move on. Maybe to Florida, where it's warm and where they can own the car they say they can't own now because they don't have a driveway.

They're waiting for the right knock on the front door--the one that comes with the right number attached.

It's the same story on Victory Boulevard near Bay Street, where two storefronts with apartments upstairs sit vacant just down the block from a long-vacant (and long for sale) lot.

On an adjacent block, two attached brick eight-unit walk-up apartment buildings --that's 16 apartments--have also been emptied of their tenants and now have 'For Sale' signs in their windows, as do several smaller buildings converted from residences into law offices and now shuttered.

Another property owner nearby--this one, of a commercial property on Bay Street, said he doesn't anticipate receiving serious offers until the new court facility is built, open and running. So for now, he's just. . . waiting.

FOUNDATIONS POURED,
BUILDINGS UNBUILT

 
Richmond Terrace between
Stuyvesant Place and
Nicholas Street

In this case, the property's unbuilt status is a good thing. The developer who abandoned this project sought to maximize his profit by constructing a waterfront barracks of attached houses positioned as luxury housing.

Today's zoning would not support such a scheme.

Richmond Terrace between
Nicholas Street and
St. Peters Place

The Staten Islander who owns this squalid mess poured foundations nearly a decade ago, threw up some painted plywood and walked away, leaving his neighbors to live with the consequences.

LARGE, LONG-VACANT PARCELS:
A POTENTIAL WALL ON THE WATERFRONT

Recent zoning changes make it all but certain that large lots like the ones shown below will become apartment blocks of the generic sort already in place at Nicholas Street and Richmond Terrace, and at Bay Street and Victory Boulevard.

The two adjacent lots owned by the Muss Organization shown next are not an earthly paradise, but their condition demonstrates Muss's professionalism and its sense of civic responsibility. The lots are located east and west of Academy Place, a single-block-long street between Wall Street and Hamilton Avenue, parallel to Stuyvesant Place.

The first photo shows the west or uphill lot, a seldom-used parking lot now grassy and treed (and, it must be said, well maintained).

 

The second photo shows the downhill lot, an active parking lot. It's not a thing of beauty, but there's an obvious ongoing attempt to keep sidewalks litter-free and passable.

There are many other vacant, unbuilt parcels in the area, some of them owned by the relatively recently arrived Brooklyn developer Leib Puretz, who is said to have gone on a buying spree and, in the downturn, it's said, has had difficulty paying his bills.

Northwest corner, Hamilton Avenue and Stuyvesant Place

Considering the amount of land these vacant parcels add up to, their future could have a very big impact on the future of St. George.

We'll just have to, uh, wait and see.

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Comments

[DYoung]

As somebody who moved relatively recently to the neighborhood, I appreciate reading your musings...
something I've been thinking of late: Maybe those vacant, new condominiums on Richmond Terr. should be converted to hotels...they'd have the best view in NYC and would be cheaper than Manhattan hotels and a brief hop to Battery Park.
It would be great for the community, maybe spur some businesses to open up, little breakfast nooks etc...This area has so much untapped potential...oft repeated words, I know.
Thanks for listening.

[Dan Icolari]

Thanks very much for your comment, D. Young. I share your belief in our neighborhood's potential, but I'm very wary of what's next for all these empty units. WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show" has produced or very soon will produce a show on exactly this topic, which is a citywide phenomenon.

I know very little about what's called the hospitality industry (including its underlying economics). But from what I understand, The Staten Island Hotel in Graniteville, just off the Expressway, has filed for bankruptcy, which may be an indicator of that industry's health--at least on Staten Island.

What seems far more likely, and more ominous, is that the buildings' owners, and those with a financial interest in them, will turn them over to HPD's affordable-housing programs, which will seal their fate for good.

This is why I believe it's wise to be skeptical about the benefits that surrounding communities may or may not receive when large private projects go forward with much political cheerleading but without community review and comment, as is the case with these mostly empty condo buildings.

Thanks for reading--and writing.