NYT on Two Trees and League Treatment Center
While Two Trees is drumming up support for its Dock Street DUMBO Project by promising a middle school to the community, it’s also not renewing the lease of the League Treatment Center school for disabled children at its 30 Washington Street property, also in DUMBO. The New York Times reports on the situation today:
New York Times: In Upscale DUMBO…: Schools close all the time in New York. But one reason the plight of this particular school has caught the attention of neighborhood activists is that its landlord is Two Trees Management.
The company, which owns much of the land in Dumbo, is seeking city approval to construct a building near the school’s space that would include apartments and a middle school.
Two Trees contends that the middle school is necessary to serve the recent influx of young families to the neighborhood. If that is so, opponents say, why push out another school — albeit a much more specialized one — not far away? In response, the developer contends the League Center school is “totally unrelated” to the need for a local middle school.
Compounding matters is that nearby options for disabled young people have already been hit hard. A preschool for children with disabilities at the nearby Brooklyn Heights Montessori School is to close in August 2010.
Jed Walentas, whose father, David, founded Two Trees, said that when League Center’s lease was last renewed eight years ago, there was a mutual understanding that the school would move out when it expired.
“I think everyone agreed that Two Trees couldn’t continue to subsidize their rent forever,” Mr. Walentas said, adding that the developer has no firm plans for the building.
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Posted : February 8th, 2009 at 10:04 am by Homer Fink under Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO.
Tags:30 washington street, league treatment center, two trees, walentas
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from Peter
Time: February 8, 2009, 12:13 pm
I won’t miss those disgusting buses !
Comment from Anonymous
Time: February 8, 2009, 9:47 pm
Can I assume that the same is going to happen to the new proposed middle school as well? Is this the true face of the Walentas showing? Anyone rooting for the middle school with that knowledge is acting as selfish as the people Carlo likes to quote as fighting against the school because of losing their view.
Comment from Publius
Time: February 8, 2009, 9:59 pm
Op-ed in the NY Post by a Two Trees lickspittle, trashing those who are against the project.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02072009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/a_con_grows_in_bklyn_153915.htm
Comment from Joel Klein
Time: February 9, 2009, 10:58 am
No, 9:47, because the Department of Education will own the middle school as a condominium.
Comment from nabeguy
Time: February 9, 2009, 11:46 am
Back when no one else was buying into dumpo, this school was offered subsidized space by TT, a commendable act. Now that it’s become a high rent district, they want them out, even though they’re willing to pay market rates in a building that TT has no plans for, an offer that Walentas has the nerve to scoff at. After this, can there be anyone who would trust a public school to this man?
Comment from Publius
Time: February 8, 2009, 10:25 am
Hypocrisy, thy name is Two Trees.