Pier55 talks still alive: There still isn’t any resolution on the Pier55 situation, and it’s looking like there might not be any until next month. Tom Fox, one of the plaintiffs from The City Club of New York who have been litigating against the glamorous $250 million Barry Diller-funded pier project, said their negotiations with the media mogul’s reps and the Hudson River Park Trust are ongoing. “We are continuing to meet,” Fox said. Their first sit-down was two weeks ago after the Trust reached out to the City Club plaintiffs and asked for a parley to see if some terms could be worked out under which they would agree to let the privately funded and operated “arts pier” plan — proposed for off of W. 13th St. — proceed. As we previously reported, Fox said the plaintiffs told the Trust and Diller’s people their specific “wants” for the project and process and are now waiting to see what the other side will agree to. The parties met again this Tuesday and Wednesday. Two additional meetings have been scheduled for Aug. 22 and a date in early September. So, it’s not looking like anything will be decided this month. “Seems that way,” Fox said. “August is a hard time to get a lot of folks together.”
Durst, copter spotter: Our scoop last week on the W. 30th St. heliport operator agreeing to pay the Hudson River Park Trust $250,000 after being caught allowing illegal tourist chopper flights from the park landing pad failed to mention one important fact: Namely, it was none other than developer and waterfront park activist Douglas Durst who first suspected that the banned flights were once again back in action. The former chairperson of Friends of Hudson River Park this week confirmed to us that, yes, it was he who raised the alarm. It was under Durst, of course, that the Friends sued to stop the tourist flights nine years ago. An online ad caught his eye. “I had seen an ad for these photography flights and I said, ‘That sounds interesting — it’s something I’d like to do.’ And then I realized I’d be doing it as a tourist, not a photographer, and that it would not be permitted under the settlement that was ordered when I was chairperson of the Friends of Hudson River Park. I thought we had spent a lot of time and money to prevent this and that this was a subterfuge,” he said of the scam. Durst then contacted attorney Dan Alterman, who with his partner, Arlene Boop, had represented the Friends in their successful ’08 suit to chop the illegal tourist chopper flights. Alterman, in turn, sent someone up on one of the flights, and it was clear that the passengers were not indie filmmakers or National Geographic photographers but simply tourists looking for a thrill. Durst left the Friends in 2012 after having a falling-out with the Trust. The Friends is no longer a watchdog for the park — it used to file lawsuits to get inappropriate uses out of the park — but has largely transitioned into the waterfront park’s fundraising arm. It’s ironic, then, that it was Durst who caught the copters doing illegal flights. “That’s another sad story,” he acknowledged, “that the Friends had to give up their watchdog role.” And, as The Villager first reported, the wealthy developer has also funded The City Club’s series of lawsuits against Diller’s Pier55 project — though Durst stressed he is no longer doing so. Following our report, Mayor Bill de Blasio even recently personally reached out to Durst, pleading for him to stop financing the litigation. It was just a very brief call, Durst said. “I told him I was no longer involved,” the developer said, “but he, like everybody else, didn’t believe me.” Anyway, moving right along to the next contentious Hudson River Park pier, Durst, of course, six years ago had proposed redeveloping Pier 40 at W. Houston St. with a commercial office campus. Meanwhile, the Trust and local youth sports leagues were backing luxury residential towers — either on the pier or right next to it. And now — waddaya know? — the Trust is backing commercial office redevelopment at Pier 40, though a legislative amendment would be needed. And the Trust is also redeveloping Pier 57, on the Chelsea waterfront at W. 17th St., into commercial office space for Google. “Pier 40 is a much better site than Pier 57,” Durst offered. “If you go by Pier 57 and take a look, the work they’re doing is incredible. It’s good for Google,” he said. “But if they had done it at Pier 40, it would have been done by now. Pier 40 was easily convertible. Pier 57 — they’re taking it apart.” Residential towers on Pier 40 would have been a major project, too, since, due to their height, they would have needed better foundations. “Residential would have required complete new foundations,” Durst told us. “Commercial could have used the existing structure. I never thought residential would have been feasible over the water.” This guy is one of the city’s most prominent developers — you’d think the Trust would have listened to his opinion! Oh, well…it seems that, in a way, they finally are.
You Chan do it! A blown-up photo by Adrian Wilson on Ludlow St. wishes well to Richie Chan, a Lower East Side superintendant known as “The Mayor of Ludlow St.” Chan and his brother have both been suffering serious health issues.
