Corbin Building Tenants Bemoan Move

 by Barry Owens

When the Metropolitan Transit Authority announced in June their plans to incorporate the Corbin building, at the corner of Broadway and John Street, as a cornerstone of the new Fulton Street Transit Center, it was seen as a boon to preservationists-a welcome restoration of an endangered 115-year-old structure.

John Morcona, owner of a security guard training business, fears a move will stifle his thriving enterprise. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum

The plans call for restoring the building's exterior, sinking an escalator from the ground floor into the subway station and converting the building's arches into grand entryways to the new glass and steel transit hub that will gleam on Broadway between Fulton and John Streets when it is completed in 2007.

But for the more than 40 tenants of the Corbin building, the future was less clear. And up until Dec. 16, some even held out hope that the renovation would not mean an eviction notice. Others had long ago accepted the fact that they would have to move.

Last month, the MTA released its final environmental impact statement on the project. The statement made it clear that the authority's "preferred option" is to purchase the building, at a cost of $50 million, and claim the upper floors.

Another option, a so-called "option nine" would have preserved the building, but not integrated it into the transit center.

The MTA's choice did not sit well with some of the business owners who attended a public hearing on the matter Dec. 16. More than one critic suggested that "option nine" would be the more prudent move for the agency.

The hearing was held on the same day the authority announced a fare hike that it said was needed to close a $700 million budget gap.

Representatives of the Christian Science Reading Room, a ground-floor tenant of the building, said the acquisition of the building served few transportation purposes other than the installation of an escalator.

"For the expense of $50 million, a few subway riders will save a few seconds," said Thomas Greise, a federal judge who spoke on behalf of the Christian Science Reading Room.

"I find it difficult to see how this is the most feasible and prudent alternative."

Tenants of the upper floors of the Corbin building remain the most perplexed. In her office on the top floor, Vilma Barr could only shake her head.
The Corbin Building at Broadway and John Street. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum

"They hadn't said diddle for the record until that meeting," said Barr, a design writer who runs a music-themed merchandise business on the side. "And they still haven't said why they need this building."

William Wheeler, director of special project development and planning for the MTA, said the building's office spaces were needed for "operational" reasons but that their "use had not been programmed yet."

Beginning this month, Wheeler said, a consultant group hired by the MTA will begin making the rounds in the building-and visiting all of the more than 140 businesses in the area that will be displaced-to discuss the details of federal relocation assistance and the availability of office space in Lower Manhattan.

Already, said John Morcona, who runs a security guard training business in the building, "architects are making the rounds, measuring the rooms and windows."

He and others, like Ricardo Barbosa, a language instructor in the building, were told when they signed their leases that their tenancies could be cut short by the MTA's plans.

"We took the chance," said Barbosa. "It is not something that took me surprise, but I really thought the process would be clear, that it would be fully explained, but that is not what is happening. Everything we know here is like gossip. The information that we do have is very depressing."

The building, as well as 194, 198, 200-202 and 204 Broadway, will be acquired by the MTA in September and tenants are to begin relocating in November.


Dr. Gary Haber, a chiropractor and 13-year tenant in the building, said he was not certain until last month that he would be displaced.

"Everything I had heard was 'maybe,'" said Haber. "Even on the day of the hearing, on the MTA's web site it only said that we 'may be' displaced."

Now that his move is certain, Haber is downhearted over what the relocation will mean to the "goodwill" he has built up with local clients over the years. And he worries whether the MTA will fully compensate him for it.

"For [the MTA] to stand there and basically portray a vision of a beautiful hub, and all the tenants here are going to do so well, is not realistic. There are going to be winners and losers."