By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD—At first, Jerald Tenenbaum had a hard time convincing his two business partners to invest in a crumbling former marina where Dyckman Street reaches the Hudson River.
Then, finally, they agreed to take a look.
They met under the shadow of the Henry Hudson Parkway and saw the postcard view of the Palisades Interstate Park, the George Washington Bridge in the distance, the unfettered access to the river.
And they were sold.
“The views sealed the deal,” Tenenbaum said.
There was just one problem. The place was a dump.
The prior owner, a retired police officer, had been busted for running a large-scale drug operation there. He’d abandoned it, leaving dozens of boats scattered around the 3-acre site. Old bait shacks had been taken over by drug addicts. A Quonset hut was filled with mattresses and porn.
More than two years later, the partners, operating under the name Manhattan River Group, have loaded their last dumpsters full of rotting lumber, discarded tires and broken glass.
And they have a contract with the city Parks Department to turn the place into a working marina again. Their renovation will include a restaurant and grill that could open next summer.
“It’s a really great plan,” said Jennifer Hoppa, the Parks Department’s administrator for northern Manhattan parks.
The land, part of a section of Inwood once known as Tubby Hook, has a long history dating to the Dyckman family, who were among the first Dutch settlers of Manhattan. Fishing huts were built there in the early 1800s. In the early 1900s, the waterfront was used to dock yachts owned by residents of nearby estates.
Ferries started shuttling cars and people to the Palisades beaches across the river. That business died off after the George Washington Bridge opened in 1931. Nothing much happened on the property until the Parks Department took control in 1966. It was turned into a marina in the 1980s.
After the 2006 drug bust, the Parks Department took its time deciding how the land, known as the Dyckman Street Boat Marina, should be used. They had other reasons to be careful. Residents of nearby Riverside Drive and Staff Street had complained for years about late-night noise from the marina’s nightclub. A parking lot had become a popular hangout for drivers showing off their custom-made cars.
The department worked with the local community board on a list of acceptable uses, Hoppa said. They agreed on two: a marina and a restaurant. The department solicited proposals from developers, and settled on Manhattan River Group’s plan for both.
The group—Tenenbaum, a lawyer; Josh Rosen, a textile-business owner and avid boater; and Chris Villano, a restaurateur—agreed to a 15-year contract in which they would pay the city a percentage of their gross receipts. The pact includes a schedule of minimum payments that start at $8,551 and grows each year, to $120,744.
They also agreed to undertake an environmental remediation project to remove debris from the site and restore native plantings.
Rosen said the plan is to provide water access to boaters in a city where they either have to be rich enough to join expensive clubs or patient enough to endure years-long waiting lists.
They expect to have their entire complex open in 2011.
