Capalino+Company

Armory Celebration Time!

bkleinbaum — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:23:23 +0000

Norwood News
May 13, 2013
Editorial

The story of the “long vacant” Kingsbridge Armory stretches back into the early years of the Norwood News. We began publishing in 1988. The military left the main building in 1993. We’ve been writing about its emptiness and the efforts to fill that emptiness ever since.

There’s a reason for that. The Armory is not only a huge, beautiful, iconic building, its fate holds all the promise of a revolution for the downtrodden area around it. That area includes lovely homes, nice buildings and hardworking people. But it’s also home to prostitution, drug dealing, slumlords and gun violence.

Simply put, it’s needed a shot in the arm(ory) since well before the Armory stopped being a place where bullets were stored.

Over the years, we’ve chronicled all the failed attempts and pipe dreams (including Councilman Oliver Koppell’s outlandish notion back in the day that the Armory should house a bunch of silly ice skating rinks), always with an eye on how any given project would benefit the community.

Now, with the Armory on its way toward becoming the world’s largest ice sports complex — Koppell, you were so ahead of your time! — which is coming complete with the city’s strongest community benefits agreement, it’s time to celebrate.

This isn’t to say that there won’t be hiccups and battles over the next five years as this thing gets built, but from what we can tell at this point, the Kingsbridge National Ice Center is poised to become a success and a catalyst for community development in the northwest Bronx.

Yes, there will be jobs — 800-plus during construction and some 260 “living wage” jobs when it’s completed (although, five years from now, we may have to re-think what that means).

But what we’re most excited about is the free after-school program for area youth.

The after-school program fills a huge need in an area inundated by youth who attend the public schools on the Education Mile, which stretches from West 195th Street to Mosholu Parkway.

These kids need something to do to stay out of trouble, to get exercise, to build their confidence, and to work with adult mentors, who will include hockey legend Mark Messier and superstar figure skater Sarah Hughes.

The ice center developers say they will steal the playbook for the program from a successful model in Philadelphia, which gets nothing but rave reviews. We believe that with Messier, Hughes and the Wall Street connections of the developers, they will be able to fund the program for as long as the Armory is home to the planet’s destination ice sports complex.

How cool is that? Cool as ice.

AIA Offers Post Sandy Redevelopment Tips

bkleinbaum — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:39:18 +0000

GlobeSt.com
May 13th, 2013
By Rayna Katz

NEW YORK CITY-Culling input from the city’s design community, the American Institute of Architects New York chapter announced on Thursday that it had issued a report detailing short-, medium-, and long-term options for rebuilding efforts and preparing the city for future storms. The “Post-Sandy Initiative” report examines the hurricane’s effects on buildings, neighborhoods, and the region, and offers next steps to support stakeholders in smarter rebuilding, the announcement states.

In the days after Hurricane Sandy, AIANY brought together the chairs of its 12 most relevant committees to discuss how the organization could assist the city in preparing for future disasters. Soon after, AIANY reached out to others in the city’s design community to collaborate on the Post-Sandy Initiative. The organizations involved include the American Council of Engineering Companies, American Planning Association New York Metro Chapter, American Society of Landscape Architects New York Chapter, Citizens Housing & Planning Council, New York State Association for Affordable Housing, Regional Plan Association and Structural Engineers Association of New York.

“Superstorm Sandy resulted from the confluence of several unique circumstances,” notes Lance Jay Brown, co-chair of AIANY’s design for risk and reconstruction committee, who oversaw the Post-Sandy Initiative. “We need to learn from that in order to address other threatening factors that may emerge from the next storms.”

According to the announcement, some of the report’s key proposals—geared for design professionals, the real estate community, institutional leaders, and policymakers—address transportation and infrastructure; housing; critical and commercial buildings; and waterfront development.

In transportation, experts were advised to identify strategies for the redundancy and resiliency of transportation systems and infrastructure at the greatest risk; improve interagency and interstate communications and inform residents about backup plans for transportation, power, fuel, and locations for assistance.

On housing, AIA advised officials to work with FEMA and National Flood Insurance Programs to create a multifamily design guide and adjust zoning regulations to account for new flood maps. In terms of what AIA calls “critical and commercial buildings,” it advised that existing critical buildings in harm’s way “that cannot be hardened” be replaced, except for those with historic or cultural significance and it suggested the development of regional protective systems that either enhance, or eliminate the need for, individual building responses.

Finally, on the waterfront, AIA suggests the development of “ground-up, incremental approach to waterfront resiliency that, in part, includes giving property owners with a menu of strategies; and it proposed creating waterfront labs to investigate strategies that could mitigate storm surge and prevent erosion.

Adding AIANY chapter president Jill Lerner, “Moderating past mistakes through careful planning, becoming more energy independent, and requiring sustainable design and construction practices will help reverse the vulnerability New York City has inherited from centuries of misguided development. AIANY looks forward to debating the ideas in this report with policymakers and New Yorkers who will benefit from a rich conversation about protecting our city.”

Changes coming to 150 Charles Street

bkleinbaum — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:47:28 +0000

WestView News
May 2013
By Brian J. Pape

Until a few years ago, several hotel towers were being planned for the West Village and a 32-story condo tower could have been built at the Whitehall Warehouse site at 150 Charles Street, by right of the existing zoning regulations. When the city down-zoned parts of the West Village, to limit sizes and heights, any projects that hadn’t yet been approved and started with their foundations, were now limited to those zoning restrictions.

Appropriately named, 150 Charles, the new condo development had already started by the time the zoning changed. Instead of designing a tower on a cleared, setback site, like the Richard Meier glass towers nearby, architects Rick Cook and Bob Fox of CookFox Architects promoted a different, more holistic vision.
Both the Villages streets of Charles and West 10th maintain a uniform “streetwall” of buildings overlooking the sidewalk, creating an intimacy for both their residences and businesses. The new 150 Charles is designed to maintain this streetwall by reusing the façade frame of the warehouse, reclad in traditional red brick and industrial style mullion windows. (If you visit the Apple store at 14th Street and 9th Avenue, you will see a similarity of CookFox parti.) Instead of the common blank walls between entrances, CookFox created maisonettes of town houses along the sidewalks, some with their own garage doors.

This development, by the team of the Witkoff Group, CookFox, and Alan Wanzenberg Design (interiors), will have only 91 residences. This is roughly the same number as the condo in which I live and that means it too will have a very low intensity of traffic for the area; it will have its own parking garage, so it likely won’t burden the streets. There will be many amenities included for the luxury residences, such as a pool, gym, storage, lounges, concierge services, and courtyard gardens. Each apartment will feature high loft style ceilings and expansive windows. This will also be one of the greenest residential buildings in the country, incorporating many sustainability features.

How else will it affect the neighborhood, even if we’re not able to go inside? Once construction is complete in 2015, we will be able to look up at the many terraces landscaped in trees and vines, spilling over and softening the profile. Do we not delight in seeing the rooftop trees and plantings visible from the street or other vantage points? The new building will gently build up from behind the height of the older existing buildings along West Street, envelop the new courtyard, and conclude as a 15-story setback main body, with terraces at various levels facing the street.

There are some who don’t like any changes to their environment; there are others who don’t like anything that is old. Some fight to have the right to do anything they want with their property; others fight to take property rights away from owners. How can anything be achieved with this tension? With thoughtful consideration of the neighborhood, the domestic lifestyle of residents, the dynamic changes of the city, and what quality design features to include, this development team will produce a beneficial addition to the West Village.

Collegiate School selling upper West Side campus to build bigger facility

bkleinbaum — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:30:26 +0000

New York Daily News
May 3, 2013
By Barbara Ross

Collegiate School, the oldest independent school in the U.S. and one of the most prestigious in the city, is selling its upper West Side campus for $97 million to build a bigger facility 16 blocks south.

In papers filed in Manhattan State Supreme Court, the school is asking the court for permission to proceed with the deal, which is required because the entities involved are nonprofits.

Collegiate, which has more than 600 male students in grades K-12, has said it needs more space because its facilities are crowded, and the church space it rents for its high school will no longer be available after 2022.

The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church is buying the two buildings the school owns, along with the school’s interest in a long-term land lease from the church, with an eye to developing the site.

The price of $97 million was set in 2012 when the Extell Corporation offered that much to buy the campus. The new facility at W. 62nd St. and West End Ave. will cost about $118 million, according to court records.

Collegiate was founded in 1628 when it was established by the Dutch West India Company and the parent body of the Dutch Reformed Church to educate colonists in New Amsterdam. At its current location for 120 years, its students have included John F. Kennedy Jr., Edgar Bronfman Jr. and William Kristol.

From Mars Bar to Jupiter 21

bkleinbaum — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:09:36 +0000

Wall Street Journal
April 30, 2013
By Josh Barbanel

In the old days, long before a neighborhood of brick apartment buildings rose up all around them, Gretchen Green and her neighbors put up with drug addicts and garbage-strewn streets in a derelict slice of the East Village.

Now, Ms. Green, a retired manager at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and some fellow longtime residents in the older, wilder East Village, are buying apartments and are about to move into one of those gleaming new buildings. The price: $10 per apartment.

A new 12-story residential building at First Street and Second Avenue

They used to live above or next to the graffiti covered Mars Bar on East First Street and Second Avenue, a now-defunct dive bar known for its grungy, punk-rock ethos. Now they will contend instead with walnut plank floors, built-in washers and dryers, a “serenity garden” and a rooftop lounge with a wet-bar and showers and outdoor screening room.

“We didn’t even have a bodega to buy food; now we have Whole Foods,” said Ms. Green, 67 years old. “It is a different population now.”

In an unusual blend of old and new New York, nine long-term tenants of two small buildings on Second Avenue struck deals to buy cooperative units in a new 12-story building, where they will share hallways with 51 mostly young renters—many new to New York and unfamiliar with the neighborhood’s history.

The bulky new building will be known as Jupiter 21, and will feature a model of the planet Jupiter hanging in the lobby.

Donald Cappocia, a principal of the developer, BFC Partners, along with partners Joseph Ferrara and Brandon Baron, said the name was chosen because “Jupiter follows Mars”—in the order of the planets.

Rents on the building’s market-rate apartments, including some with twin terraces, will range from $3,000 to $10,000 a month, Mr. Cappocia said. Some higher-floor apartments have views from the Manhattan Bridge to the Empire State Building.

The site was part of the huge Cooper Square urban-renewal area assembled by the city decades earlier that remained stalled for many years.

Ms, Green’s old three-story building was built as a “moving pictures” theater, according to a 1913 permit, by Louis Minsky, part of the Minsky burlesque family. At one point it had a restaurant and a pool hall upstairs. The top floor was used as an off-off Broadway theater in the 1950s.

In the mid-1970s, the city turned control of the building over to Ellen Stewart, the late founder and driving force behind La MaMa, on the condition that she rent it out to artists, Ms. Green said.

A Greek-born sculptor occupied one apartment, and Ms. Stewart and Ms. Green lived in others. Another tenant was John Vaccaro now 83, who was a founder of a group known as the “Playhouse of the Ridiculous” that flourished in the late 1960s and ’70s.

Mr. Vaccaro said he spent his own money to turn his bare loft with a hot plate into a finished space, but paid a very low rent, which rose over time from $50 a month to $294 a month.

Next door, there were five more occupied apartments in a city-owned building where residents paid no rent at all, but paid dues to cover shared expense, including legal costs of fighting off evictions, according to Andrea Legge, an artist who has lived there for decades.

“We always claimed it was abandoned with people in it,” she said.

Empty buildings in the urban-renewal area were a magnet for drug dealers and garbage collected in the surrounding streets, according to tenants. “There was nothing romantic about it,” Ms. Legge said. “There were needle junkies in the basements. It stunk and it was all so over.”

At dusk in the 1980s Ms. Green said she could sit out on her fire escape and count the glow of “60 crack pipes.”

Beginning a decade or so ago, the city finalized plans for much of the area, including a series of brick rental buildings put up by AvalonBay Communities Inc. AVB -0.08% One of the new buildings rented space to a Whole Foods store on Houston Street.

At about the same time, the city offered to sell Ms. Green’s building to the tenants for $650,000. The tenants then brought in Mr. Cappocia, who formed a partnership with them to buy the building.

He agreed to work with them to renovate it, build on top of it or replace it.

Next door, Ms. Legge’s building was turned over to a housing group, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, to help them renovate the building and turn it into a co-op.

But both plans moved ahead slowly, Mr. Cappocia said, until a few years ago when the city set up a special zoning rules that allow for a bonus in the permissible square footage of buildings that include affordable housing. That in turn made the new building feasible.

When Mr. Cappocia offered to buy air rights over Ms. Legge’s building, the tenants agreed to let him demolish their building in exchange for limited-income co-op apartments in Jupiter 21, with strict limits on maintenance costs.

Now, the new building is about to open, and the old-time tenants are about to return to the site. Ms. Stewart died in 2011, and her granddaughter, Mia Yoo, now the artistic director at La MaMa, will be purchasing the apartment, Mr. Capoccia said.

Ms. Legge said the apartments she saw were beautiful, with good light and views of Second Avenue, but she also has mixed feelings about it.

“I am grateful they didn’t give us lowlifes apartments in the back,” she said. “I feel hugely entitled to this luxury apartment, but I feel completely unworthy of it at the same time.”

New Palliative Care Facility Proposed for Lower East Side

bkleinbaum — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:36:57 +0000

Bowery Boogie
April 29, 2013

Despite the imminent riverside gold rush at the hands of Extell (vis-a-vis Pathmark) and discussion of NYCHA infill, a much different development could be on the way. A polar opposite, if you will. On Wednesday evening, the Land Use subcommittee of Community Board 3 will hear the case for construction of a 183,700 square-foot palliative care facility on South Street that acts as an enhanced assisted living residence for older adults.

There’s some back history with this particular location, though. HealthCare Chaplaincy seeks to modify the existing Large Scale Residential Development (“LSRD”) that was originally approved by the city back in May of 1972. The land targeted is a large chunk of parcel 5 of the since-expired Two Bridges Urban Renewal Area, which currently functions as parking lot.If ultimately approved, the healthcare facility will reach 206 feet (roughly 18 stories), and boast 120 assisted living units, a geriatric outpatient medical practice, chapel, and space for a non-profit commercial tenant. Most of the displaced parking spaces would be redistributed to an on-site garage and a newly created lot alongside the perimeter, plus the addition of 45 new spots. Furthermore, the South Street frontage would be lined with landscaping. It’s also important to note that the facility will not affect Rutgers Park.

Plan for Ice Center in Bronx Armory Moves Forward

bkleinbaum — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:37:12 +0000

New York Times
April 23, 2013
By Winnie Hu

The Kingsbridge Armory towers over the northwest Bronx, a massive empty shell that has long defied redevelopment efforts and haunted generations of city leaders.

Now, this enduring symbol of the Bronx’s stalled ambitions has once again become the focus of a campaign to bring much-needed jobs and economic revival to the borough. Standing inside the armory’s frosty interior on Tuesday morning, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Bronx officials announced that they had reached an agreement with a developer to transform the city-owned building into what they called the world’s largest indoor ice sports center.

The agreement, which still requires the approval of the City Council, calls for the Kingsbridge National Ice Center to open inside the existing armory building in 2018. The 750,000-square-foot center would eventually house nine regulation-size ice rinks for skating and hockey — including a 5,000-seat arena. (The developer said the current largest ice sports center was in Minnesota.)

The center is expected to create 267 permanent jobs and 890 temporary construction jobs, according to city officials.

The new center would be paid for entirely with $275 million in private money invested by KNIC Partners, a development group founded by Kevin Parker, a former Wall Street executive. KNIC Partners will pay the city $1 a year to lease the armory, as well as 5 percent of its annual gross revenue, which city officials estimate will be about $1 million. Two years after the project is completed, the developer will be given an option to buy the armory and the land at market price.

“The road wasn’t easy, no major development project ever is,” said Mayor Bloomberg, who was flanked by the former New York Rangers star Mark Messier and the Olympic figure skater Sarah Hughes. “But the alternative — not reaching an agreement and allowing this armory to remain empty and stand as a symbol of the abandonment that once plagued the Bronx — was simply unthinkable.”

The ice center plan is the latest in a series of proposals to redevelop the armory, which was completed in 1917 and was once used for war efforts. The city has spent about $30 million to clean up environmental contamination, replace the roof and repair the building’s facade.

In 2000, Rudolph W. Giuliani, then the mayor, proposed turning the armory into an entertainment, sports and retail complex, but that never materialized. In 2009, a proposal to turn the armory into a shopping mall pitted the Bloomberg administration against Bronx officials and residents who feared that it would promote low-paying jobs and compete with local merchants. The collapse of that proposal soured relations between the mayor and the Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., and helped set off a citywide campaign for living-wage legislation that was adopted by the City Council over the mayor’s veto.

But the ice center is expected to face far less opposition. The mayor said his aides had met repeatedly behind the scenes with Mr. Diaz and other Bronx elected officials to coordinate efforts to redevelop the armory. The city’s Economic Development Corporation selected the ice center over five competing proposals, including an artisanal marketplace and a velodrome.

City lobbying records show that KNIC Partners helped build support for the ice center by paying $197,500 to James F. Capalino & Associates to lobby Mr. Diaz, the mayor’s office and other officials.

John DeSio, a spokesman for Mr. Diaz, said the ice center did not receive special treatment.

Last week, KNIC Partners won community support for the deal by voluntarily signing an agreement with a coalition representing more than 30 groups in the area. The company promised to pay every worker a living wage, which amounts to at least $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 an hour without benefits. It also agreed to give a hiring preference to Bronx residents, devote over 50,000-square-feet in the armory for community use, provide opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses and give free ice time to schools in poor neighborhoods.

But some Bronx residents expressed disappointment and skepticism over the armory’s planned transformation into an ice center.

“We really need that?” said James Hunt, 25, a dishwasher who grew up in the neighborhood. “With all the time they’ve been taking with this, they should have come up with a better idea than an ice rink.”

Nuria Vazquez, 46, a mother of two boys, compared the planned ice center to a charter school that would shower benefits on those fortunate enough to be chosen. “It’s a drop in the bucket,” she said. “You’ll have so many people competing for those jobs, it will be like winning a raffle.”

Jim honored at Coro Civic Leadership Benefit

bkleinbaum — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:20:58 +0000

Jim's Family

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On Wednesday night Jim was awarded the Lewis Rudin Award for Civic Leadership, which is presented to exemplary New Yorkers who share Coro’s commitment to making the city a better place for all who live and work here. Also honored was Maryanne Gilmartin of Forest City Ratner, as well as Coro Alumni Amardeep Singh of the Sikh Coaltion.

Coro is a great institution which Capalino+Company is proud to support. Three of our team members have particpated in Coro Leadership New York, and our COO Travis Terry serves on its board.

KNIC Designated by Mayor to Develop Kingsbridge Armory

bkleinbaum — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:14:30 +0000

Mayor Bloomberg and Mark Messier

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Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced plans to transform the long vacant Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx into what will become the world’s largest indoor ice facility. The landmark armory, occupying a full City block, will be redeveloped into a 750,000-square-foot ice sports facility featuring nine year-round indoor regulation size ice rinks, including a main rink that can seat approximately 5,000 people.

The new complex will be known as Kingsbridge National Ice Center (KNIC). When completed in 2017 KNIC will be used to host national and international ice hockey tournaments, figure and speed skating competitions and ice shows. It is expected that KNIC will draw more than 2 million visitors a year to the Bronx facility. There are currently only seven year-round ice rinks in New York City, however, none are located in the Bronx.

The project will also include 50,000 square feet of space designated for community uses. The project represents a private investment of $275 million, which will generate 890 construction jobs and 267 permanent jobs, all of which will pay a living wage. Joining Mayor Bloomberg for the announcement at the Kingsbridge Armory were KNIC Partners LLC Founder Kevin Parker, New York Rangers hockey legend Mark Messier, Olympic Figure Skating Gold Medalist Sarah Hughes, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., City Council Member Cabrera, New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth W. Pinsky and Bronx Community Board 7 Chair Paul Foster.

“Through this redevelopment the Kingsbridge Armory will now have an interior program befitting its iconic exterior architecture,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The construction of the world’s largest indoor ice rink facility will create recreational opportunities for millions of visitors and local residents, and most importantly create hundreds of jobs for the local community. This plan is proof that working together we can put aside our differences and do what’s best for the city.”

“Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for the historic Kingsbridge Armory,” said Kevin Parker, founder of KNIC Partners. “I thank Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Economic Development Corporation for this tremendous honor and for believing in our vision, and look forward to working with the community throughout this process to ensure the Armory’s future is as incredible as its past. This project is about opportunity, first and foremost, and we are confident the Kingsbridge National Ice Center will become a source of pride for the Bronx and all of New York City for generations to come.”

Capalino+Company played an important advisory role to KNIC Partners LLC working with numerous New York City government offices, elected officials and community related organizations to develop an overall project plan that could satisfy the diverse needs of the community and create a for profit ice facility that could be supported by private investors. Team Capalino included Founder/CEO Jim Capalino, COO Travis Terry and Senior Vice President George Fontas.

See press coverage about the event:

Crain’s New York Business

WABC (text)/WABC (video)

Woolworth Building Marks Centennial

bkleinbaum — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:54:03 +0000

One hundred years ago this week on April 24th at 7:21pm, President Woodrow Wilson pressed a button in Washington DC that turned on the lights of every floor in the new Woolworth Building marking the official opening of the tallest office building in the world. Five and Dime entrepreneur, Frank W. Woolworth held a dinner that evening for 900 people on the 27th floor in honor of the building architect, Cass Gilbert, considered the highest skyscraper dinner ever held in the world.

Built at a cost of $13,500,000 (and paid for in cash), the building became the corporate headquarters for the rapidly growing Woolworth Company and also housed the Irving Trust Company and Columbia Records. In addition it had an observation deck on the 57th floor where visitors could see the view from the top of New York City for a small charge.

The building was owned by the Woolworth Company for 85 years until 1998, when the Venator Group (formerly the F. W. Woolworth Company) sold it to the Witkoff Group for $155 million. In August 2012, an investment group led by Alchemy Properties, a New York developer, bought the top 30 floors of the landmark on July 31 for $68 million from the Witkoff Group and Cammeby’s International. They are currently converting those floors to residential condominiums for sale.

For more interesting historical facts about F. W. Woolworth, click here.