By Suzanne Ma
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
EAST VILLAGE — Facing an expiring lease, a Lower East Side seniors center recently went on the hunt for a new home. But all they found was a neighborhood already squeezed for space with high rents on offer.
Their predicament highlighted a paradoxical problem on the Lower East Side: the scarcity of space in a neighborhood that cradles five, empty city-owned lots near the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.
Cabrini Elder Care, which serves more than 800 seniors a year, is looking for 150,000 square feet of new space.
Their current lease, at 542 E. 5th St., expires in 2012, explained representative Pamela Guilgi, who made an appeal for help in front of Community Board 3's Land Use and Zoning Committee on Monday night.
"We have been looking for several years," Guilgi said. "Most of the seniors we care for are from the neighborhood, and we really want to stay down here and continue to service them.
Committee members agreed that there were few options that would fit Cabrini's request.
"Seward Park is probably the only place that can offer so much space," said committee member Herman Hewitt.
But the committee stopped short of passing a motion recommending Cabrini as a candidate for space in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area.
The development of Seward Park, members agreed, was a tricky and contentious issue that needed to be worked out with the city and with community input.
The story of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area goes back to 1967 when a federal slum clearance program ordered New York City to tear down several tenements on the Lower East Side. Some lots were redeveloped, but five, bounded by Essex, Delancey, Willett and Grand streets, were not.
Even though residents want action at the site, they are split about what should be built there. Today, the space is a sprawling parking lot that's the largest piece of undeveloped city-owned property south of 96th Street.
At the end of the night, the committee passed a motion to encourage that the landlord at the E. 5th Street location try to work out an extension for Cabrini. The motion also asked the city to help look for property that would allow the center to re-locate somewhere in the Lower East Side.
Public meetings to forge a development plan for Seward Park will be held at the Cooper Union Foundation Building on 7 E. 7th St., 8th floor, on April 20, May 24, and June 21.
