Councilmember Quinn:
Forgive my intrusion into your schedule, but if I may take a few minutes of your time today, I wish to ask you if you would assist us in a matter that is currently before the NYC Zoning Council.
As you may be aware, the owners of the historical Hotel Pennsylvania have filed with the city paperwork to have the current site of the hotel rezoned. The Hotel is located within a C6-6 zoning a C6-4.5 and within the Penn Center Sub district of the Special Midtown District. Vornado wants to rezone the spot to allow the construction of Single Tenant Office Scenario and/or a Multi-Tenant Office Scenario. (A copy can be found here http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/env_review/15_penn/draft_scope.pdf) Either of these scenarios would require the demolition of the Hotel Pennsylvania.
Numerous RFE have been submitted to the LPC, with the majority backing of CB5, the HDC, and Assemblyman Gottfried. So far all have been denied for consideration. To sum it up Ms. Quinn, this hotel should have been preserved years ago after the original Pennsylvania Station was demolished back in the mid 1960's. I ask that you please lend your support to aid us and help by letting your fellow city council members know, that we the citizens care about our neighborhood, and the Hotel. We do not want to see the Hotel Pennsylvania destroyed, in fact we would be overjoyed if was refurbished back to its original glory. There has been talk about how this construction would create new jobs for the city, but Ms. Quinn we know that in the current economic situation, the jobs that would be create would only be temporary. The "office tower" would sit mostly empty of tenants, and would put all the current employees of the Hotel Penn out of work. Any business that would move into this office tower would only be relocating from other areas of NYC and thus would not be creating any positive work flow for NYC.
Ms. Quinn we don't need another office building in NYC, we have plenty. Help us by preserving the things in Manhattan that matter.
I thank you for your time, and hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Gregory Jones
Save The Hotel Pennsylvania Foundation
gregory.jones@savehotelpenn.org
http://www.savehotelpenn.org/
