City Planning Commission Unanimously Passes St. Vincent's Rezoning Plan

By: Josh Robin

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The plan to convert the shuttered St. Vincent's Hospital into a luxury apartment complex took a big step forward Monday, when it unanimously passed by the City Planning Commission, but not everyone in Greenwich Village was pleased. NY1's Josh Robin filed the following report.

It won unanimous approval from city planning commissioners, and following Monday just one step remained in the Rudin family's bid to turn the vacant former St. Vincent's Hospital complex in Greenwich Village into a new development anchored by market-rate homes by 2014.

"Obviously we're very happy and very pleased, and it reaffirms the plan that we put forward several months ago that addressed a lot of the issues that were raised by the community," said Bill Rudin of the Rudin Management Company.

The plan includes turning a sealed-off space into a park and creating a new public school nearby.

"Given the past efforts of the applicant on this proposal, I am confident that they will continue to work with the community in the future," said Director Amanda Burden of the New York City Department of Planning.

Plans are for a smaller space than before, but to preservationists it is still out of scale.

"The site was rezoned over 30 years ago to allow the hospital buildings to be built at a larger-than-usual size because there was a special public purpose that they served. Rudin today was basically saying 'Give us those same special privileges so that we can build extra large luxury condo buildings,'" said Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

Then there is a hot-button point that has not left since 2010, when St. Vincent's buckled under its own debt — where will sick people go?

There will be a stand-alone emergency department nearby, run by North Shore/LIJ. Planners say it will be almost twice the size as the one that was at St. Vincent's, but to some in the community, that is still not enough.

Jayne Hertko says St. Vincent's saved her life a decade-and-a-half ago, when she rushed to the hospital.

"I had no blood pressure, all of my organs were failing, and basically within moments I was having one spinal tap after another, I was surrounded by specialists. This is what it means to be a trauma center," said Hertko.

It is up to the City Council now. Speaker Christine Quinn, who represents the area, has not taken a public position.

Records indicate that in 2007 four members of the Rudin family gave Quinn the maximum amount for her yet-undeclared bid for mayor.