BY YANNIC RACK | Lower East Side residents searching for work have something to look forward to when the new Hotel Indigo opens next year. Thirty percent of the more than 100 jobs that will be created at the hotel, at 180 Orchard St., are now earmarked for local residents, it was recently announced.
The hiring target is part of a memorandum of understanding, or M.O.U., between the InterContinental Hotel Group, the owners of the Indigo, and the Lower East Side Employment Network, or LESEN.
David Garza, executive director of the Henry Street Settlement, one of the founding partners of LESEN, signed the M.O.U. on behalf of the network. Speaking on Thursday, Garza said that although there have been agreements like this before, “none were this detailed.”
Garza added that there might be more good news on the way, as LESEN is currently in “active and open conversation” about a similar agreement with members of Delancey Street Associates, the Essex Crossing development team.
Work on the giant development between Delancey and Grand Sts. — in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area — will start next spring. According to Garza, the employment target would include construction jobs as well as the permanent jobs that will be created once the commercial and residential tenants move in by 2023.
“A lot of that is contingent on who the tenants ultimately are,” Garza said. “But I know that the whole spectrum of jobs is in conversation now.”
The mega-project offers potential for a broad array of employment opportunities.
“So this serves as a model that can be replicated and, hopefully, scaled up,” Garza said of the Hotel Indigo agreement.
In a press release hailing the announcement, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said, “Once they are members of the New York Hotel Trades Council, workers at this hotel will be on the path to the middle class, with solid wages, free family healthcare and retirement security.”
LESEN has secured previous working partnerships with the Hotel on Rivington, the Thompson LES hotel (now SIXTY LES) and Basketball City.
The network includes Community Board 3, Chinese American Planning Council, Chinatown Manpower Project, The Door, Henry Street Settlement, University Settlement, GOLES and — since July — Grand Street Settlement. The organization provides job training and other skills to local residents, and works with businesses to place them in jobs.
