Pace Students to Leave Clark Street in 2013

By on December 23, 2010 9:58 pm in Brooklyn Heights, News, Real Estate

Pace University is building a new dormitory in lower Manhattan and, when it is completed in 2013, will no longer house students in the Educational Housing Services facility on Clark Street.

The Real Deal: Pace University has signed an agreement with SL Green Realty for a 24-floor residence hall to be constructed at 180 Broadway, at the corner of John Street, in Lower Manhattan…The new hall, designed by Karl Fischer, will replace the roughly 600-bed location the school currently leases in Brooklyn Heights, and is part of a university-wide construction effort.

We noted in April, 2007 that Pace was then planning to move some students from Clark Street to another new facility at 55 John Street, also in lower Manhattan. The dorm under construction is mentioned in the Real Deal article as adding to Pace’s existing residences in that area, including 55 John. Whether EHS will be able to fill the rooms at Clark Street vacated by Pace with students from other schools remains to be seen.

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  • EHinBH

    This is my biggest fear for the North Heights — that EHS would sell that dorm to the City and it would turn into a welfare hotel, as I believe it once was.

  • x

    I think it w ill worth more for them to convert them to condos to sell them individually.

  • AEB

    What?! No more dorm?! There goes the neighborhood…..

  • David on Middagh

    OR… crazy idea, here… they could turn it into a hotel!

  • Winstion Smith

    @ EHinBH,

    Oh god forbid we should have any poor people living here, insular jerk.

  • my2cents

    Well, maybe it’ll turn back into a SRO hotel and you will wish the students were still here.

  • John Wentling

    “Insular jerk” indeed – the Heights was more working class until the mid 80’s, the same person that served you breakfast may have also been your next door neighbor.

    More elitist then insular.

  • AEB

    Let us get real.Poverty is a social ill. It is not enriching. Besides, given the money that can be made off of local real estate, it’s not gonna happen here.

  • Anon

    Not sure if its still this way, but basically all you had to be in was “a school” in order to board there. So unless Pace took up a really large portion of the rooms, it might not matter too much.

  • x

    I work in a poor/lower class neighborhood, and I don’t want to see our neighborhood turn into trash filled streets, filled with hoodlums hanging out in street corners.

    The type of neighborhood that makes you or your family feel unsafe walking at night. We have a lot of those in NYC and I don’t want BH to be one of them.

    Please insulate indeed.

  • x

    It’s not about poor people. it’s about people who care about their own neighborhood and not throw trash on the ground and make the area look like crap.

    Thats what happens in a poor neighborhood. Neglect all around

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Anon: according to the article, Pace students are now occupying about 600 of the available beds. I’m not sure what is the total capacity of the EHS Clark Street facility, but 600 seems like it is probably a large part of it. There are students in the facility from other schools, but I’m not sure EHS would be able to fill it without Pace.

  • SGdormer

    Wow that is interesting. I live there as a student and Pace definitely takes up the biggest percentage of kids living there. There’s still a lot of schools like the NYCDA and st. josephs and st. francis, etc, but I wonder how they’ll attempt to fill those. I hope this doesn’t foreshadow any end to the st.george/clark residences because they are so great to live in, in my opinion

  • EHinBH

    Amen, X. I grew up in a neighborhood that was once a gem of the City and then it slowly attracted nursing homes, SRO hotels, and section 8 landlords. Within a 10 year period you could not walk the streets and people had to leave town just to shop. It’s EXACTLY what happened here in the 70s.

    Obviously this is not going to happen again in BH at this point in time, but yes, the more insular, the better. It took me my whole life to afford a place here and I’ll be damned if a welfare hotel takes up down the block from me.

    Don’t care if I sound like an elitist.

  • Y

    I think it would be an ideal setup for a brothel. finally something fun to have around. I have been waiting for years to get something like this into the neighborhood.

  • william

    Ya mean, no more student jumpers after 2013?

  • nabeguy

    EH, you’re not an elitist, just a short-termer. While I may not be one to talk, given that I’m moving out of BH, I can truly say that the 54 years that I’ve been familiar with this neighborhood have been great ones, with most of the worst elements of it long gone in history. The problems in the 70’s with the SGH were not pleasant but they were limited to one location. If you want to really know about class/culture conflicts that occurred in BH,you have to go back to the 60’s and earlier, when the docks were still a vibrant economic engine for unskilled labor.

  • Winstion Smith

    EHinBH,
    Elitist sectarian bigot, is more like it. Face it you’re a frightened whitey. why don’t you start a BH KKK chapter?

  • AEB

    Oh, Winston, please! It’s about to be Christmas, you know? Just turn that frown upside down, ‘kay?

  • nabeguy

    Winston, given the season, would it be okay if they wear red hoods?

  • T.K. Small

    It seems that there is a relationship between Pace & nabeguy moving out. Something to think about…

    As for the red hoods, they could change their name to SSS, Sadistic, Santa, Sychos, (these guys are very mean and have trouble spelling).

    Season greetings to everyone!

  • Cranberry Beret

    Whatever the merits of the rest of this conversation, I’m not sure why everyone ran with the original premise that the building might somehow be sold to the city. I’m guessing the next winter solstice lunar eclipse will happen first. The owner of the building (EHS is just a tenant) is sitting on a cash cow. The idea that some pace students leaving will directly lead to the St. George returning to a SRO is ludicrous.

    A more important question is, will the owner ever EVER lower the rent on the retail space at the Pineapple/Henry corner? That space has been vacant for, what, 15+ years?

  • nabeguy

    T.K. there is no relationship whatsoever. The Pace residents graduate onto higher grounds (one hopes)…I’m just looking for different grounds (I hope).

  • Andrew Porter

    The space at the Pineapple/Henry corner is now office space, with the blinds always down. If you peek in you can see office cubicles. There is a mezzuzah on the doorway, so maybe the Drizzins are there now.

    The idea that there will be no students to replace those leaving is ridiculous. Brooklyn Law still owns numerous buildings around BH, including the building it bought from the JWs on Hicks betw. Orange and Pineapple. And with the expansion of so many other schools within a few blocks, including NYU/Poly, St. Francis, etc., 600 beds will be easy to fill.

  • ClarknHenry

    I, for one, would be thrilled to say “Goodbye” to ALL the students living at the St. George. So many of them are drunken, inconsiderate, loud-mouth, littering slobs! The quality of life in BH goes straight to hell the day they move back every fall. Temporary corporate housing would be nice. No way will the city turn it back into an SRO. I’ll take my chances that whoever takes the students place will be an improvement.
    Harumph!

  • nabeguy

    Just to be clear, the EHS facility is privately owned, as it was when the city brokered a deal to house homeless AIDS sufferers there back in the 70’s. As such, I don’t believe there are any restrictions that can be exercised by the community to dictate how the owners can use their property. Personally, I’d prefer that it revert to a hotel, but the current student residents are definitely an improvement over the the past tenants, most of whom found themselves in their particular situations as a result of drug abuse.