Click here for a PDF of this sign-on letter in support of the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, sent to NTC Mayor Adams on July 22, 2025.

July 22, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Re: Restoration and Reopening of the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, 1 Clarkson Street, Manhattan

Dear Mayor Adams and First Deputy Mayor Mastro:

As community and preservation organizations representing thousands of residents of Lower Manhattan and New Yorkers from across the five boroughs, we write to strongly urge you to ensure that the landmarked and much beloved Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, now closed for more than five years, is restored, modernized, and reopened. We have been deeply dismayed by the Parks Department’s ongoing effort to demolish the building.

Community support for restoring and reopening the existing Tony Dapolito Recreation Center has been overwhelming and consistent. While this community supports creating new supplemental indoor public recreation facilities in 388 Hudson Street, there is and always has been a clearly stated desire to see the existing Center repaired and reopened. That has manifested in overwhelming sentiment expressed at Community Board meetings, a community board resolution overwhelmingly opposing demolition and calling for restoration, nearly 40,000 letters sent by nearly 5,000 people to various public officials calling for the Center to be restored and reopened, and multiple letters from more than 20 downtown community groups and preservation organizations from across New York City and State calling for the same. Additionally, more than 200 people attended a rally on June 1 of this year calling for restoration and reopening of the Center, and Councilmember Bottcher has called for moving ahead with a process for designing a reimagined Tony Dapolito Center which would “retain, at minimum, the existing facades of the building, while also exploring new uses that allow for the preservation of as much of the building’s historic interior as feasible,” and that “preservation should be a foundational component of any future proposal.”

The Center’s deteriorated condition is a direct result of deferred maintenance and a failure to undertake needed repairs, upgrades, and restorations. We urge you to call upon the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to pursue a failure to maintain violation against the Parks Department to compel it to begin the process of repairing the building, as the LPC has already been called upon to do. Disturbingly, they have thus far refused to do so.

We urge you to commit to repairing, modernizing, and reopening the facility, and to putting forward a plan to do so as soon as possible. None of the issues with the building are beyond the scope of repair, and none of the updates needed are incompatible with continued use of the building for recreational purposes, even if some spaces may no longer be used for the same purposes that they have in the building’s most recent incarnation. A building is needed on this site to serve the adjacent outdoor swimming pool, and even with a new recreational facility at 388 Hudson Street, the need for a public recreation center here remains. Aside from the deep connections the Lower Manhattan community and a wide array of New Yorkers feel to this building and the need for public recreational facilities which it could serve, this structure was quite intentionally landmarked in 2010 as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II, recognizing its importance to the history of our city. To allow it to be destroyed rather than repaired and reopened would be incredibly damaging to the regulations which exist to preserve and protect all our city’s recognized historic properties.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Andrew Berman
Executive Director, Village Preservation

Jay DiLorenzo
President, Preservation League of NYS

Keri Butler
Interim President, Municipal Art Society (MAS)

Peg Breen
President, NY Landmarks Conservancy

Frampton Tolbert
Executive Director, Historic Districts Council

Sean Khorsandi
Executive Director, Landmark West!

Nuha Ansari
Executive Director, Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts

Lo van der Valk
President, Carnegie Hill Neighbors

Claudette Brady
Executive Director, Save Harlem Now!

Sommer Omar
Founder, The Coalition to Save the Public Recreation Center Downtown

Richard Corman
President, Downtown Independent Democrats

Raymond Cline
President, Village Reform Democratic Club

Sean Sweeney
Director, SoHo Alliance

Mark Fielder
President, Bleecker Area Merchants Residents Association (BAMRA)

David Mulkins
President, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors

Micki McGee
Founding Member, South Village Neighbors

Patricia Aakre
Board Member, Friends of Finn Square

Pat Bates
Founding Member, Team Min

Kenny Wind
President, Grand Street Democrats

Ellen Breslow Newhouse
Founder, The Wednesday Group

Kim Beck
Co-Founder, Downtown Nasty Women Social Group

Irene Kaufman
Co-President, Village Independent Democrats

Erin Quinn Purcell
President, Westbeth Artists Residents Council

Augustine Hope
President, West Village Residents Association

Kathryn Arntzen
President, Central Village Block Association

Steve Gould
Founding Member, Christopher Street Merchants Block Association

Marguerite Martin
President and Co-Chair, West 12th St. Block Association

Maria Leao
Executive Director, Village Kids NYC

Executive Committee
Chelsea Reform
Democratic Club

December 9, 2024

The Honorable Kathy Hochul
Governor of New York State
New York State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Re.: New York State Historic Preservation Tax Credit (Click here for a PDF of this letter)

Dear Governor Hochul,

On behalf of the undersigned, a coalition of advocates and practitioners in the fields of historic preservation and affordable housing, thank you for your commitment to historic preservation, affordable housing, and community development projects throughout the state.

Together, we are advocating for important enhancements to the New York State Historic Preservation Tax Credit (NYS HTC) program that will advance the development of affordable housing and community development projects in New York State, while saving the state money. We urge you to include these enhancements to the Historic Preservation Tax Credit in your FY 2025-26 Executive Budget proposal.

The NYS HTC has been an indispensable tool for revitalization in New York State. By incentivizing the reuse of our existing historic buildings, it has encouraged sustainable, environmentally friendly development that has kept valuable building materials out of landfills, strengthened existing walkable communities, reduced greenfield development, and protected our historic buildings and downtowns. Communities throughout New York have used the NYS HTC to transform their Main Streets and downtowns. In Buffalo alone, projects that would not have succeeded without the NYS HTC include the Richardson Complex, Larkinville, Lafayette Hotel, Artspace Buffalo, and the Evergreen Lofts, among many others. It is also a highly effective tool for housing creation: since 2010, the NYS HTC has been responsible for the creation of 29,173 housing units, 15,400 of which are low/moderate income units.

Current New York State law requires the NYS HTC to be allocated in the same manner, and to the same parties, as the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit. This required allocation depresses the pricing of both tax credits by limiting the pool of tax credit users. This means less money flowing to important community revitalization and housing projects. As development costs rise, and buildings become more challenging to develop, we need to enhance this important tool now to keep our momentum going. Allowing the allocation of the NYS HTC to investors other than those who are allocated the Federal Historic Credit, or “bifurcating” the credit, would open up and broaden the investor market. The additional step of “certificating” the credit, would further serve to increase the value of the credit, thus injecting more equity into these projects.

Current law also requires projects to be “in whole or in part located within a census tract which is identified as being at or below one hundred percent of the state median family income.” This limitation restricts the ability to access NYS HTCs for many low-income buildings in nearby census tracts that are above the one hundred percent threshold. Accordingly, we support authorizing NYS HTCs to be used for any qualified historic rehabilitation projects, regardless of census tract, provided such projects satisfy the criteria for affordable housing. This simple change would create greater flexibility in the use of NYS HTCs and expand the number of projects that can be rehabilitated for affordable housing.

Enhancing the NYS HTC in this modest yet impactful way would have some big benefits.

1. More affordable housing. A more flexible program would increase the attractiveness of tax credits amongst new investors who would provide greater private investment dollars in New York State projects.

2. Less cost to New York State. With greater private investment, New York State will be relieved of the need to add additional public funds to get these projects done.

3. More money for projects. Credits have reduced value to an investor if they can’t take full advantage of them. We are “leaving money on the table” if credits are used at a reduced cost or not all.

4. We will be helping the climate. Building demolition and new construction is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and it pours tons of materials into our landfills each year. If we incentivize building reuse, we are helping the environment.

Notably, the Assembly and the Senate introduced legislation during the 2024 session (A.9722/S.9071) that would have made the bifurcation and certification improvements discussed above. While the legislation unanimously passed the Senate, it unfortunately did not pass in the Assembly prior to the end of session.

Let’s make these meaningful enhancements to the NYS HTC now and build a better New York one building at a time.

Sincerely,

Adirondack Architectural Heritage, Erin Tobin Executive Director
C.B. Emmanuel Realty, Ben Upshaw Managing Partner
Carmina Wood Design, Steven J. Carmina, AIA President/CEO
Carmina Wood Design, Paul R. Lang, AIA Managing Principal
Common Bond Real Estate LLC, Jason A. Yots, President
Historic Albany Foundation, Pamela Howard, Executive Director
Historic Districts Council, Frampton Tolbert, Executive Director
Historic Ithaca, Christine O’Malley, Preservation Services Director
Home Leasing, Bret Garwood, CEO
Johnson-Schmidt Architect, P.C., Elise Johnson-Schmidt, AIA
Landmark Society of Western New York, Wayne Goodman, Executive Director
Monroe Building LLC, Derek King, Manager
New York Landmarks Conservancy, Peg Breen, President
New York State Association for Affordable Housing, Jolie Milstein, President and CEO
Otsego 2000, Ellen Pope, Executive Director
Preservation Association of Central New York, Andrew Roblee, President
Preservation Association of Central New York, Nicole Fragnito, Executive Director
Preservation Buffalo Niagara, Bernice Radle, Executive Director
Preservation League of New York State, Jay DiLorenzo, President
Preservation Long Island, Tara Cubie, Preservation Director
Preservation Studios LLC, Mike Puma, Director of Technical Services
RUPCO, Kevin O'Connor, CEO
Ryan, Albert Rex, Principal, Tax Credits
Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation, Samantha Bosshart, Executive Director