Disaster won't interfere with Battery Park's green building

Real Estate Weekly, Oct 10, 2001 by Elaine Misonzhnik

Speaking at the Oct. 2 luncheon of the Association of Real Estate Women, Jerome Blue, senior vice president of project development and management for Battery Park City Authority, assured the audience that the organization will go ahead with its plans for the construction of energy-efficient buildings.

Blue admitted that as a result of the World Trade Center attack the projects had to be put on hold temporarily, but said work will resume within the next few months. New construction at Battery Park City would include 20 River Terrace, "the first green high rise in the U.S.," the Irish Hunger Memorial, Teardrop Park, and new buildings on sites 1, 2, 3, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, and 24.

According to Blue, construction at 20 River Terrace will begin within two to four weeks. The Irish Hunger Memorial at Vesey Street will be completed by next year. Plans for most of the other sites, including a women's museum at site 3, are under development right now.

Blue also mentioned that the authority would like to improve energy efficiency of the existing Battery Park buildings as well. "We don't want our green buildings to be only the new buildings, we want to see what we can do to our old (properties)," he said. "Some of the things that we are focusing on right now is improving energy (consumption) at Battery Park."

Debra Beck, of the Real Estate Board of New York, who was also speaking at the event, applauded the Battery Park City Authority for! its effort to get things back to normal.

"We are definitely in either a half empty or half full moment in New York right now," she said. "I'd like to think that the glass is half full. What this opportunity creates is a way of rebuilding Lower Manhattan where you can move freely from the East Side to the West Side. But we need to be patient."

Beck also spoke of REBNY's efforts to find suitable office space for tenants displaced by the World Trade Center attack and encouraged building owners to contribute any space they might have available.

"We request of our members that in assisting to find temporary space, they do so at no commission," she noted. "We would like to see Lower Manhattan operating 24/7 as soon as possible, so we are encouraging area residents to take temporary space. I am optimistic that within the next six months things will begin to get back to normal."