Judge Rules Tobacco Warehouse is Public Parkland
A state judge ruled that the city’s attempt to transfer Dumbo’s Tobacco Warehouse to St. Ann’s Warehouse wasn’t legal because the space is public parkland, and so the attempted land transfer violated public trust doctrine. Future plans for the property will have to be approved by the state legislature. The plaintiffs were the Brooklyn Heights…
A state judge ruled that the city’s attempt to transfer Dumbo’s Tobacco Warehouse to St. Ann’s Warehouse wasn’t legal because the space is public parkland, and so the attempted land transfer violated public trust doctrine. Future plans for the property will have to be approved by the state legislature. The plaintiffs were the Brooklyn Heights Association and the Fulton Ferry Landing Association. The ruling follows a federal judge’s decision in April that the National Park Service illegally redrew the boundaries of state parkland to exclude the Tobacco Warehouse and Empire Stores, which the city and NPS said had been included in the map of Empire Fulton Ferry State Park by mistake. Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, said the following in a statement: “We knew that our fight to save the Tobacco Warehouse for the public was necessary and that the defense of the public trust in this case was the right thing for the Brooklyn Heights Association to do.” Meanwhile, as we learned earlier this week, St. Ann’s has found a new home in Dumbo.
Judge Halts Tobacco Warehouse Transfer [Brownstoner]
Legal Battle Over Tobacco Warehouse Continues [Brownstoner]
Park Service: St. Ann’s OK for Tobacco Warehouse [Brownstoner]
DOJ Weighs in on Tobacco Warehouse Feud [Brownstoner]
Two Lawsuits Over the Tobacco Warehouse [Brownstoner]
my guess as to why the transfer deal retained SHPO review was so that the NYC Landmarks Commission, with its statutory requirement for public hearings, could be bypassed and be off the hook.
The SHPO is literally six staffers out on some remote islet in the Hudson north of Albany, Believe me, they will not impede the redevelopment of the Empire Stores.
my guess as to why the transfer deal retained SHPO review was so that the NYC Landmarks Commission, with its statutory requirement for public hearings, could be bypassed and be off the hook.
The SHPO is literally six staffers out on some remote islet in the Hudson north of Albany, Believe me, they will not impede the redevelopment of the Empire Stores.
the SHPO will do exactly what BLoomberg tells Cuomo he wants.
NYS no longer owns the Empire Stores. The former Empire Fulton Ferry State Park was transferred to the CIty and is now part of Brooklyn Bridge Park. The City is in the driver’s seat now.
I doubt the interiors of the Empire Stores will be an issue from here on.
I really like the warehouse the way it is. It is great that one can look through it to the river and that the arches frame the views. It is a unique landscape folly, a picturesque ruin (there are many in England). A regular roofed in brick box would offer what? It would be boring. This is special. And it can be used for a wide variety of activities -as it has over the past few years.
I say leave the beautiful structure as is, those who can’t appreciate it lack imagination.
St Ann’s will relocate soon to a generic masonry box a few blocks away. That is as it should be.
Meanwhile. the Empire Stores next door offer a ton of roofed-in space for redevelopment.
The TW arches should remain open to the river and the sky.
Theses structures will eventually be handed over to private parties I have no doubt but Parks will have to follow proper legal and environmental procedures. For one thing they will need to identify another parcel of land, equal to that being demapped, to compensate the public. There is talk about city land just north of Main Street.
the community is definitely giving itself a well-deserved pat on the back for having the courage to stand up to government agencies breaking the law. Both the city and state courts agreed that the community was 100% right.
does anyone else see a point of this being used as part of the park?
one of the things that I found most ridiculous about this was that the State and City Parks departments, in collusion to demap public parkland, stated that the Empire Stores and Tobacco Warehouse were never intended to be part of the park and that their inclusions was a drafting error. A preposterous lie.