St. Saviour's Backers Fight Development by Rebecca Henely - YourNabe.com

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Maspeth Development LLC has filed plans to build warehouses on the former site of St. Saviour's Church in Maspeth, despite community activist and political support for parkland on the spot.

Despite efforts by area politicians and activists to preserve the property, Scott Kushnick, developer at Maspeth Development LLC, said he is moving forward with plans to build warehouses at the former site of St. Saviour’s Church at 57-40 58th Street in Maspeth.

“It would be a shame if there were warehouses built there,” said Maspeth resident and activist Christina Wilkinson.

The site has long held the interest of western Queens activists, who want to preserve the area as parkland. The land was sold to Maspeth Development in 2006, which formerly wanted to sell the land or develop it as apartment buildings. In 2008, Maspeth Development, LLC, donated the church building to the Juniper Park Civic Association and allowed the group to remove the 163-year-old church from the site. The Association dismantled it piece by piece to be rebuilt later.

Bob Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, said in an e-mail the church would be rebuilt either at the original site, if the city can acquire the land as the association hopes, or it would be at All Faiths Cemetery at Middle Village.

“The St. Saviour’s site is one of the last historic properties in Queens County,” Holden said. “It must be saved.”

The plan to turn the site into a parkland is supported by the area’s elected officials.

“Maspeth has been under-served when it comes to park space and we need to seize on this opportunity to invest in open space for the residents of Maspeth,” City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) said in a statement. “That is why Borough President [Helen] Marshall and I secured $1.5 million to acquire park space in this area of Maspeth. I hope the owners of the property see this commitment and begin negotiations to sell the property to the city as soon as possible.”

Yet Kushnick said the offer from Marshall and Crowley was not a “real offer” since he paid between $7 million and $8 million for the property.

“The amount of money that they have is a fraction of the value of this property,” Kushnick said.

He has submitted plans for warehouses to the city Department of Buildings, which have not been reviewed yet.

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Wilkinson said she does not see the purpose of building warehouses on the site, pointing out that the West Maspeth area already has many empty warehouses.

“I’m not a businessperson, but to me that just doesn’t seem like a very smart decision,” she said.

Wilkinson said she believed the developers should see the money raised by Crowley and Marshall as the city making a commitment to turning the area into parkland.

“The problem is he’s not negotiating with the city,” she said.

Holden also called upon Mayor Michael Bloomberg to help.

“He should make good on his promise of building more parks,” Holden said, “especially for the neighborhoods that desperately need more greenspace such as Maspeth.”

Note: This story has been corrected since publication to reflect the fact that Maspeth Development donated the church building to the Juniper Park Civic

Owner Pushes to Develop St. Saviour's by Michael Cusenza - Queens Chronicle

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The briefly dormant saga of the St. Saviour’s site in Maspeth recently picked up as the developer applied to erect warehouses on the land activists and elected officials have pushed to become a park.

Maspeth Development LLC earlier this month submitted paperwork to the city Department of Buildings to obtain permits to construct four one-story storage units on approximately a quarter of the 1.5-acre property at the corner of 57th Drive and 58th Street. Public records indicated this week that the permits were pending zoning approval.

Calls seeking comment on Wednesday from Scott Kushnick of Maspeth Development were not returned.

City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall allocated a combined $1.5 million in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget to acquire the land. While it is unknown how much Maspeth Development is seeking for the site, Kushnick indicated last week in a Daily News report that no offer he considered reasonable had been made.

“I hope the owners of the property see this commitment and begin negotiations to sell the property to the city as soon as possible,” Crowley said this week in a statement.

Dan Andrews, spokesman for Marshall, said the Borough President’s Office has been corresponding with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which handles property transactions for the city and will “talk to the owner about issues surrounding acquisition.”

A partial stop-work order on the site was issued in November by the DOB, which has also hit Maspeth Development with three violations since 2006. Newtown Historical Society President Christina Wilkinson, who had been at the forefront of the battle to preserve the trees and buildings, and later advocated along with other civic leaders for green space, said the land in and around the cordoned-off property is not being properly maintained.

“This is the quintessential definition of blight — it’s causing the property values in the area to come down,” she told the Queens Chronicle Wednesday before asserting that the city should condemn the land in order to acquire it at a reasonable price.

“Even if [the developer] does move ahead and build the four warehouses, there’s still three-quarters of the land left,” Wilkinson noted. “But I’m hoping negotiations stop that.”

The barren site formerly housed the Episcopal St. Saviour’s church and parsonage, which was designed by renowned architect Richard Upjohn and dated back to the mid-19th century. The trees and parsonage were razed three years ago. All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village offered to house the church on its property, but the plan never materialized and the disassembled house of worship has been in storage since the spring of 2008.

Wilkinson said successfully preventing the owners from developing the land for residential use three years ago, and gradually gaining governmental support have been the community’s two most crucial victories regarding St. Saviour’s; but recent wrinkles show the narrative is not complete.

“Things were quiet there for a while,” Wilkinson related. “It just seems like a chess game. And chess games between good players take a long time.”