A Towering Test for Mayor Mamdani in The Village

By Phyllis Eckhaus

Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman and District 2 City Councilmember Harvey Epstein called on Mayor Mamdani to right a towering wrong ─ namely the 30 story, 538 foot tall building approved for 5 West 13th Street, just west of Fifth Avenue. The planned tower, on a low-rise residential block, would offer just 36 oversized, super-luxury units and no affordable housing — and the city says that’s okay, thanks to “City of Yes” rezoning.

Yet back when the Adams administration was lobbying for “City of Yes,” it pointed to exactly that development site, and assured advocates and policymakers that the rezoning would produce “nice low bulky buildings, like the ones you see on this block and they would likely include affordable housing,” Berman said at the April 23 press conference.

Indeed, Village Preservation initially hoped the city’s approval of the tower was a mistake and asked the Department of Buildings and the Planning Department to review the approval and fix the regulations as necessary. The city said, “Sorry, this is exactly what our new zoning rules allow.”

As the city now interprets the rules, luxury towers are not merely allowed but “incentivized,” Berman contended — an alarming omen of more of what’s to come, if the mayor doesn’t step in. “Super-tall, super-luxury condo towers, not on Billionaires’ Row in Midtown, but here in a residential neighborhood. And with just a tiny number of huge, outrageously expensive apartments that are rarely if ever lived in,” he noted, referring to the likelihood the units will be bought as investments, not as homes.

“Mayor Mamdani, you came into office as a change-maker and a status quo breaker,” Berman declared. “Here’s a chance to live up to those ideals…Don’t accept the rules of your predecessor and his supporters in big real estate…Fix our zoning, so this ‘City of Yes’ tower does not become the face of our future.”

Councilmember Epstein concurred, decrying the tower as a mockery of the affordable housing crisis, offering “zero affordability, but lots of penthouses for people who don’t even live in New York City.” Describing the plight of the average New York City renter, confronting a 1.5 percent vacancy rate, the councilmember observed that there’s far greater availability of market rate and luxury apartments. The potential buyers of super-luxury housing — “the one percent of the one percent of the one percent” — have neither an affordable housing problem nor a scarcity problem,” he noted.

Also urging the mayor to intervene were Val Orselli, from This Land Is Ours Community Land Trust, who spoke at the press conference, and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, who issued a statement calling the tower “unacceptable.”