I can help with some of this. First, under Susan Rosenthal, RIOC shipped tons of archival records to Albany because, she claimed, RIOC lacked enough space for them. There were objections, especially from Judith Berdy over creating a lack of access, but Rosenthal shrugged it off. The records would all be available in an Albany warehouse. It might just take longer to locate them. You can just imagine the RIOC file boxes buried in a corner under the history of Wellsville, probably water damaged and carelessly indexed if indexed at all. This was probably more government sloppiness than subterfuge, but losing records never hurts the bad guys.
As for the Sanctuary, Howard Polivy was on the board and knows the history of what happened when Hudson-Related evicted the church to make way for the Sanctuary. Originally announced as a speakeasy, it was slowly reduced to what you have now after the Roosevelt Island Daily raised hell about its location next to the Octagon playground.
Thanks to RIOC, Hudson-Related and our always easy to work with city Buildings Department, the Sanctuary was built out without a single building permit. Everyone knew because we reported it. H-R and RIOC pointed fingers of responsibility at each other, then the Buildings Department did its useless thing. After multiple residents complained about the lack of permits, the department sent inspectors out four times at last count. It was in the official records. Two inspectors showed up but no one answered the door; so, they left. Hilariously, the other two said they were unable to find the bulilding. More...
Part Two: In the beginning, Rosenthal agreed that there was no space for parking on the Promenade adjacent to the Sanctuary. After an initial event where PSD was caught lying about the mess created, Rosenthal agreed that anyone attending events at the Sanctuary would have to walk from the Octagon turn around to the event. The reason was obviously. Driving to the Sanctuary required passing through a poorly lit parking lot, then down to the waterfront through a Fire Lane without any stop signs or sidewalks for pedestrians. Watch long enough, and you'll find that there is no rule or law that PSD will ignore for the right people. The free for all you have now on the waterfront where walking the Promenade means dodging cars and risking your safely on a path never designed of lit for cars.
Maybe this will remind Howard Polivy and Fay Christian of their responsibilities to the community. it might even restore their conveniently lax memories.
So Hudson/Related was also connected to the Sanctuary. Do you know how that arrangement worked, whether they are still involved, and under what contract or agreement it sits? We’ll FOIL it, though the usual pattern of missing records or multi-month delays is already expected. Thanks for flagging the history.
The Sanctuary, then known as Dayspring Church, was a part of the Main Street Retail deal from the start. Dayspring was well behind on rent and was evicted by Hudson Related. Then, Frank Raffaele stepped up and signed a lease for the space with the announced intention of opening it as a “speakeasy.” Eventually, he backed off that.
But the important part of that is that Frank, nicknamed “Turtle,” had long been an owner of COFFEED. If you don’t remember them, the chain was a Starbucks competitor, which, among other things, had multiple city contracts for cafes in parks, including one in Long Island City. Their coffee sucked, by the way. Frank has a great personality and was well connected with people in the Parks Dept., especially, if I recall, Henry Stern, who ran things under Bloomberg. That came crashing down when Raffaele and his partner declared bankruptcy and were accused of fraud in at least one lawsuit. The state claimed they owed tens of thousands in back taxes. It was really ugly. One of the litigants was Raffaele’s neighbor who accused him of luring him into a $50K or so investment under false pretenses shortly before COFFEED went bankrupt and shut down everything.
Under this scenario, Hudson-Related signed the same pair up for The Sanctuary.
I should add that I followed the lawsuits for a couple of years, and Raffaele blew them off as inconsequential when I talked with him. I also personally like the guy and believe he tries to run a clean show on Roosevelt Island. Even so, he never applied for or got a single building permit, and both RIOC and Hudson Related, along with DOB, looked the other way. Good luck figuring out why.
Roosevelt Island never runs out of history that is still news. Always the same main characters, and like Game of Thrones a few get butchered every year or two while the real players stay safely in the shadows.
I can help with some of this. First, under Susan Rosenthal, RIOC shipped tons of archival records to Albany because, she claimed, RIOC lacked enough space for them. There were objections, especially from Judith Berdy over creating a lack of access, but Rosenthal shrugged it off. The records would all be available in an Albany warehouse. It might just take longer to locate them. You can just imagine the RIOC file boxes buried in a corner under the history of Wellsville, probably water damaged and carelessly indexed if indexed at all. This was probably more government sloppiness than subterfuge, but losing records never hurts the bad guys.
As for the Sanctuary, Howard Polivy was on the board and knows the history of what happened when Hudson-Related evicted the church to make way for the Sanctuary. Originally announced as a speakeasy, it was slowly reduced to what you have now after the Roosevelt Island Daily raised hell about its location next to the Octagon playground.
Thanks to RIOC, Hudson-Related and our always easy to work with city Buildings Department, the Sanctuary was built out without a single building permit. Everyone knew because we reported it. H-R and RIOC pointed fingers of responsibility at each other, then the Buildings Department did its useless thing. After multiple residents complained about the lack of permits, the department sent inspectors out four times at last count. It was in the official records. Two inspectors showed up but no one answered the door; so, they left. Hilariously, the other two said they were unable to find the bulilding. More...
Part Two: In the beginning, Rosenthal agreed that there was no space for parking on the Promenade adjacent to the Sanctuary. After an initial event where PSD was caught lying about the mess created, Rosenthal agreed that anyone attending events at the Sanctuary would have to walk from the Octagon turn around to the event. The reason was obviously. Driving to the Sanctuary required passing through a poorly lit parking lot, then down to the waterfront through a Fire Lane without any stop signs or sidewalks for pedestrians. Watch long enough, and you'll find that there is no rule or law that PSD will ignore for the right people. The free for all you have now on the waterfront where walking the Promenade means dodging cars and risking your safely on a path never designed of lit for cars.
Maybe this will remind Howard Polivy and Fay Christian of their responsibilities to the community. it might even restore their conveniently lax memories.
So Hudson/Related was also connected to the Sanctuary. Do you know how that arrangement worked, whether they are still involved, and under what contract or agreement it sits? We’ll FOIL it, though the usual pattern of missing records or multi-month delays is already expected. Thanks for flagging the history.
The Sanctuary, then known as Dayspring Church, was a part of the Main Street Retail deal from the start. Dayspring was well behind on rent and was evicted by Hudson Related. Then, Frank Raffaele stepped up and signed a lease for the space with the announced intention of opening it as a “speakeasy.” Eventually, he backed off that.
But the important part of that is that Frank, nicknamed “Turtle,” had long been an owner of COFFEED. If you don’t remember them, the chain was a Starbucks competitor, which, among other things, had multiple city contracts for cafes in parks, including one in Long Island City. Their coffee sucked, by the way. Frank has a great personality and was well connected with people in the Parks Dept., especially, if I recall, Henry Stern, who ran things under Bloomberg. That came crashing down when Raffaele and his partner declared bankruptcy and were accused of fraud in at least one lawsuit. The state claimed they owed tens of thousands in back taxes. It was really ugly. One of the litigants was Raffaele’s neighbor who accused him of luring him into a $50K or so investment under false pretenses shortly before COFFEED went bankrupt and shut down everything.
Under this scenario, Hudson-Related signed the same pair up for The Sanctuary.
I should add that I followed the lawsuits for a couple of years, and Raffaele blew them off as inconsequential when I talked with him. I also personally like the guy and believe he tries to run a clean show on Roosevelt Island. Even so, he never applied for or got a single building permit, and both RIOC and Hudson Related, along with DOB, looked the other way. Good luck figuring out why.
Roosevelt Island never runs out of history that is still news. Always the same main characters, and like Game of Thrones a few get butchered every year or two while the real players stay safely in the shadows.