Could Beacon HS be the Temp Site for P.S. 199 or P.S. 191?

New York Press reports on CB7's Youth, Education and Libraries Committee meeting from last week.

The committee also discussed the Beacon Building Working Group, which was formed in March to deal with future plans for what will be a vacant space when the Beacon School relocates. Beacon High School will be moving from their current location on West 61st Street to a new spot on West 44th Street in the autumn of 2015. Mark Diller, who chairs the Beacon Building Working Group, addressed concerns in the community that the organization would simply serve as a rubber stamp to approve Beacon as an interim space for P.S. 199 (270 W. 70th St.) or P.S. 191 (210 W. 61st St.), both sites that Department Of Education (DOE) has shown interest in reconstructing.

Read the Full Article. 

DNAinfo.com Article about plans for the Beacon HS Building

DNAinfo.com has an article about plans for the Beacon High School building.  A new Beacon High School is being built and the DOE is working on plans for the old building.

One possibility mentioned in the article:

But the planned walk-through, which does not yet have a scheduled date, has sparked concerns that the Department of Education may be eyeing the Beacon building as a new home for P.S. 191, if the city goes forward with its proposal to tear down both P.S. 191 and P.S. 199 and replace them with privately developed high-rises.

Promises have been made concerning the process for PS 191 and PS 199 but as far as we know nothing  has been put into writing:

In response to parents' concerns about the proposed demolition of P.S. 191 and P.S. 199, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott committed at a recent town hall meeting to get more feedback from residents before moving forward with the plans. Walcott assured anxious parents that the DOE's Educational Construction Fund, the arm that proposed the two school sites for private redevelopment, was not on the verge of issuing a request for development proposals, said Shuffler, who attended the town hall."[Walcott] did state very clearly that he would allow community input before the RFPs went out," added Maack, who also attended the meeting.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130422/upper-west-side/new-committee-plans-future-of-beacon-high-school-building#ixzz2RCLtwaHE

Coverage in the New York Observer

Preservationists Agitate to Save Durell Stone-Designed PS 199 From Demolition

By Kim Velsey 4/15 8:00pm

Ever since the Department of Education posted a Request for Expressions of Interest in three public school sites late this fall—seeking proposals for three “prime development sites” that included PS 199 on West 70th Street—the local community has risen up in protest.

As with other such sites, it’s almost certain that no matter what developer the city selects, the plan will involve a luxury condo tower on the 99,000 square-foot site with a replacement school on the tower’s lower levels.

And while DOE has not yet made any final decisions about the site, the possibility that the school might be razed has not only angered the contingent of parents and teachers that one would expect to be riled by such an announcement, but also preservationists, who are now mobilizing to protest the destruction of the 1963 building, designed by the noted modernist architect Edward Durell Stone.

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Comments on the NY Daily News Story / Problems with ECF/DOE Projects

This comment was made in the article:

“There is so much misinformation,” said Douglas MacLaury, senior vice president of the Mattone Group, one of the developers vying for the PS 199 site. “The neighborhood gets a brand new school paid for by the residential development that rises on the site. This is a win-win for the neighborhood, children, city, and the developer.”

Not really true.  The latest ECF/DOE projects were poorly planned and are over crowded. After 4 years of displacement, the last ECF project, PS 59, opened with 1st grade and kindergarden wait-listing and a scrapped pre-K program. See the following articles:

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120522/midtown-east/ps-59-scraps-pre-k-program-amid-overcrowding

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120403/murray-hill-gramercy/waitlists-stretch-first-grade-at-ps-59

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120319/murray-hill-gramercy/kindergarten-waitlist-expected-at-new-ps-59-building-midtown 

Moreover, the developer lost financing and is only now looking to complete the project, see the Wall Street Journal article.

You can read more background information on our start here page.

News of our Efforts in the NY Daily News

"Upper West Side parents are blasting a little-known city program that lets private developers tear down old schools to make room for luxury housing and a new educational facility, saying the approach hastens overdevelopment and bypasses the normal public approval process.

The Department of Education’s Education Construction Fund is eying three such sites — but is encountering resistance at Public School 199 on W. 70th St., designed by the modern architect Edward Durell Stone."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/upper-west-side-school-eyed-housing-irks-neighbors-article-1.1312096#ixzz2Q43dJaVW

Wall Street Journal Highlights Problems with Past ECB/DOE Projects

"The World-Wide project came a result of a complex public-private partnership. The site actually is owned by the city's Department of Education, which in 2006 agreed to lease it to World-Wide for 75 years. As part of the deal, World-Wide agreed to rebuild two aging schools now on the site: an elementary school and a 1,400-student high school. 

The agreement was billed by the city as an innovative way to pay for new schools, given that the proceeds from the lease—which the city in 2006 said would be worth $325 million—would more than cover the price tag for the school construction.
After the downturn hit, the tower plans were put on ice. But World-Wide went ahead with construction of the schools, which were built on the same property in a way that also left space to build the tower. The schools, which were paid for by the city, opened in the fall, and the developer also built adjacent retail space that now holds a Whole Foods."

This development raises the question of how the school was paid for when the developer postponed the building of the tower when they lost funding.  Did the city go out of pocket contrary to the so called advantage of this pubic/private development?

Go to the Full Article

News from the West Side Rag

TONIGHT - APRIL 10TH, A CHANCE TO GRILL SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR DENNIS WALCOTT

Posted on April 1, 2013 at 3:36 pm by West Sider

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott is coming to the Upper West Side on April 10, and the local community education council wants to hear your questions. They’d like to get the questions by April 1, so think fast!

The District 3 Community Education Council is asking District 3 Parents and Guardians to submit their top 5 concerns for District 3 to CEC3@schools.nyc.gov by Monday April 1st in preparation for the Town Hall.

Maybe, just maybe, Walcott will answer all of the myriad questions that the DOE has failed to answer about the plan to demolish PS 199 and PS 191 and replace them with high-rises with schools inside.

Info on the town hall below:

Joint Town Hall Meeting
With Chancellor Dennis Walcott
And the
Community Education Council District 3

■

April 10, 2013
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Wadleigh Educational Complex
Auditorium
215 W. 114th St.

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Helen Rosenthal, City Council Candidate in the NY Press

How The Department of Education Made New Schools A Cause of Community Anger

Written by NYPress on March 22, 2013. Posted in Opinion West Side Spirit, West Side Spirit.

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By now, most Upper West Siders are familiar with the City Department of Education’s decision to demolish one of our local schools, P.S. 191 or P.S. 199, to make way for luxury housing towers in already crowded neighborhoods. There are so many fundamental questions about how this proposal came to be, a lack of discussion about whether or not it’s ever acceptable to sell public assets to a private developer, and why this proposal was dropped on the Upper West Side with virtually no notice that it has put an indelible taint over the entire project.

Go to the Article

Candidates Roundtable for Seniors

Meet City Council Candidates

Sunday April 7th at 11:30am, Lunch and Live Music

Club 76 - Senior Center

120 W. 76th St, 3rd Floor Ballroom

News from WestSideRag.com

EXCLUSIVE: THE CITY IS CONSIDERING PLANS TO DEMOLISH PS 199 AND PS 191 (UPDATED WITH CITY RESPONSE)

Posted on February 17, 2013 at 1:39 pm by West Sider

In somewhat shocking news, we have learned that the city has solicited and received proposals from developers to demolish PS 199 on West 70th Street and PS 191 on West 61st Street and build luxury towers on their sites. PS 199, an elementary school, is one of the most highly regarded and popular elementary schools in the entire city, and the building was designed by renowned architect Edward Durell Stone. Both schools have also had millions of dollars worth of renovations in recent years, which would be reduced to rubble.

The city would demolish the schools in order to allow developers to build large luxury apartment towers with new schools in them. The schools could be demolished as soon as 2015, according to a mother of students at PS 199 who attended a PTA meeting about the plans last week. Parents and school officials apparently were not briefed on the plans, which are already quite far along, until recently. The city clearly expects opposition to the plans (more on that below), and parents look like they might fight.

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News from WestSideRag.com

PTA TRIES TO REASSURE PARENTS ABOUT POSSIBLE PUBLIC SCHOOL DEMOLITIONS

Posted on February 20, 2013 at 9:45 pm by West Sider

The news we broke about the city’s effort to find developers willing to redevelop the sites of two Upper West Side public schools has shocked local parents. PS 191 on 61st street and PS 199 on 70th street could be demolished and redeveloped as high-rises with new schools inside them. Now the PTA at PS 199 is trying to quell parent anxiety.

“First and most importantly, no decisions have been made regarding anything and the demolition of PS199 is not imminent!” the PTA letter says (full letter reprinted below).

Since soliciting ideas from the real estate community months ago to develop high-rise apartment buildings with new schools on the sites of three current schools (two on UWS, one on UES), the city’s Educational Construction Fund (ECF) has received dozens of proposals from developers. The initial brochure sent to developers said that they could build on the sites with virtually no public review: the traditional development review process known as ULURP would be suspended because the sites of the current schools are owned by the city and the zoning in the area allows for large buildings. But since the plans leaked, city officials have said that they will involve parents throughout the process, and any development will have to go through ULURP (this may come as a surprise to developers who read in the city’s “request for expressions of interest” that they would not have to go through this process).

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News from the NY Times

Saving Schools and Libraries by Giving Up the Land They Sit On

Quote from the article:

“What makes a place interesting is different kinds of architecture and a school looking like a school,” said Laurie Frey, a member of the Community Education Council in District 3, a board that represents public school parents on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “There’s a feeling of, ‘Oh please, not another high rise,’ and a feeling that, since we’re already getting used to an increased density in our few blocks, do we really need more?”

The city’s Educational Construction Fund is reviewing proposals for construction of high-rise apartment towers on the sites of two public schools near Lincoln Center — P.S. 191 on West 61st Street and P.S. 199 on West 70th Street, which was designed by the modernist architect Edward Durell Stone — and another school on East 96th Street, the School of Cooperative Technical Education. In each case, new schools would occupy the lower floors of the new buildings.

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DOE Seeking Proposals to Demolish Two UWS Schools

By Ivan Pentchoukov
Epoch Times StaffCreated: February 19, 2013Last Updated: February 19, 2013

NEW YORK—The New York City Department of Education (DOE) is seeking proposals from real estate developers to demolish two schools on the Upper West Side to make way for residential towers. 

The schools would then be reincorporated into the residential projects, with the developers footing the bill.

The two schools in question, P.S. 199 and P.S. 191, are nine blocks apart and are both in the midst of renovations worth more than $12 million. Notably, P.S. 199 is one of the most coveted public schools in the city and was designed by Edward Durell Stone, the architect who also worked on the Museum of Modern Art and the Radio City Music Hall.

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News from thebrokerbuddy.com

Development Battles: City Wants to Demolish UWS Schools to Build Luxury Towers

Over the long weekend, the West Side Rag broke some surprising news: the city is considering plans to tear down three schools on the Upper East and Upper West Sides and replace them with luxury apartment towers. What’s even more shocking is that the city has been seeking plans since November, and parents with children in the schools were just recently notified. The schools in question are PS 199 at 270 West 70th Street, PS 191 at 210 West 61st Street, and the School of Cooperative Technical Education at 321 East 96th Street. PS 199 has 850 students, PS 191 has 550, and unsurprisingly, parents are pretty pissed about the plans. A rep from the DOE said that the city will only move forward with plans if they find something worthwhile. DNAinfo reports that a dozen developers have expressed interest.

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News from nypress.com

Dept. of Ed Plays Russian Roulette with School Buildings

Written by Joanna Fantozzi on March 15, 2013. Posted in Breaking News, News & Features West Side Spirit, West Side Spirit.

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Parents are outraged that the DOE can’t tell them which of two possible Upper West Side schools will be demolished and rebuilt

The Upper West Side community has come down hard on the Department of Education for not communicating to the public about possibly demolishing and rebuilding P.S. 191 on West 61st Street, and P.S. 199 on West 70th Street. At a meeting last week with Community Board 7 and the Community Education Council for District 3, the DOE revealed that it only plans to rebuild one of three schools: P.S. 191, P.S. 199 or The School of Cooperative Technical Education on the Upper East Side, and that the plans are only in the preliminary stages.

“Why are we concerned? The incredible lack of notice,” said Mark Diller, the chair of Community Board 7. “We only found out about the project because a P.S. 199 parent who reads Crain’s noticed an ad announcing expressions of interest for three city owned sites. They gave addresses but never said that they are public schools. But the parent was savvy and recognized the school’s address.”

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News from gothamist.com

FREAK OUT: City Wants To Turn UWS Schools Into High Rises

P.S. 199 is ONLY three stories? TEAR IT DOWN (Jen Chung / Gothamist).

Super easy way to freak out New York City parents? Threaten to tear down (or rezone) their schools! And, because the Department of Education loves to freak out parents, the former is exactly what is appears it is doing on the Upper West and East Sides. Nice to know ya, P.S. 191 and 199 (also the School of Cooperative Technical Education)!

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News from TheRealDeal.com

City reaches out to developers to build high rises at sites of three schools

February 18, 2013 03:00PM

The city has reached out to developers for proposals to build high-rise towers at the site of two schools on the Upper West Side and one in Harlem, including the renowned Edward Durell Stone-designed P.S. 199, West Side Rag reported.

The schools—P.S. 199 Jessie Isador Straus located at 270 West 70th Street, P.S. 191 Amsterdam located at 210 West 61st Street and the School of Cooperative Technical Education located at 321 East 96th Street—could be demolished as early as 2015, a parent at P.S. 199 who attended a PTA meeting on the matter, told West Side Rag. In total, the three schools enroll just under 1,900 students.

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News from DNAinfo.com

City Plans to Tear Down Two Upper West Side Schools for High-Rises 

February 18, 2013 6:52am | By Emily Frost, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER WEST SIDE — The city wants to knock down two Upper West Side elementary schools to clear the way for privately developed high-rise apartment towers — a plan that is infuriating local parents and education advocates.

The Department of Education's Educational Construction Fund posted a request for interested developers in Crain's New York in November, offering up two "prime development sites" at 210 W. 61st St. and 270 W. 70th St., without mentioning the fact that they are home to P.S. 191 and P.S. 199.

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News from curbed.com

City Wants to Demolish UWS Schools to Build Luxury Towers

Tuesday, February 19, 2013, by Jessica Dailey

Over the long weekend, the West Side Rag broke some surprising news: the city is considering plans to tear down three schools on the Upper East and Upper West Sides and replace them with luxury apartment towers. What's even more shocking is that the city has been seeking plans since November, and parents with children in the schools were just recently notified. The schools in question are PS 199 at 270 West 70th Street, PS 191 at 210 West 61st Street, and the School of Cooperative Technical Education at 321 East 96th Street. PS 199 has 850 students, PS 191 has 550, and unsurprisingly, parents are pretty pissed about the plans. A rep from the DOE said that the city will only move forward with plans if they find something worthwhile. DNAinfo reports that a dozen developers have expressed interest.

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