It looks like plans are officially underway to turn 97 West Street into a housing development.
The Promote first reported that the Jay Group plans to purchase a few parcels of land from the Guttman family and has secured more than $300 million in financing for a residential project. The parcels encompass 36-44 Greenpoint Avenue and 79-97 West Street. Notably, no sale is currently listed in city property records, but unnamed sources confirmed the project with The Promote.
​The 590-unit residential building will join another project in the works at 57 West Street. The 268-unit building will likely be condos, according to New York YIMBY. TF Cornerstone purchased the property from the Guttmans last year.
The news marks the culmination of long-standing suspicion from several local commercial tenants. The Guttman family owns much of West Street through a series of LLCs, one of which, 91 West Street LLC, recently sent last-minute notices terminating the leases of several tenants along Greenpoint Avenue and West Street.
Tenants told Greenpointers they felt a sale was imminent and had seen workers measuring the site.
A few businesses have already decamped or announced plans to decamp, including Ilegal Mezcal, Marianella Market, PetSupplied, and ZDS Creative. However, the future of other establishments remains unclear, considering 91 West LLC might not have given all tenants proper legal notice. 91 West LLC gave tenants about a month to vacate; under New York law, some of them should have received 60 to 90 days’ notice.
​Stuart Cinema (79 West St.), which first opened in 2018, has not announced any closure and has films scheduled past the projected date to vacate.
Joshua and Jack Guttman’s ownership of West Street has garnered widespread criticism from locals. In a 2020 Greenpointers story, 67 West Street tenants expressed concerns with building cleanliness, dubious extra fees, and a general sense of inflexibility during the worst of the pandemic. There have been at least five documented cases of arson at Guttman properties, including at the Greenpoint Terminal Market in 2006, which at the time was the city’s biggest fire since September 11. The Guttmans have never been charged with any crime related to the fires.
Next steps for the project (and the tenants still operating out of West Street) are still to be determined.
I still can’t believe that small business owners were willing to rent on a month to month basis. What were they thinking ?
I am so sorry that this is happening to the store owners. There really should be a law against something like this.