Addressing Concerns about Potential Delay of Riverside Center School

After a number of Upper West Side parents expressed concern that Extell Development Company’s plans to sell two parcels of Riverside Center might delay the opening of the development’s new school, my office reached out to the company to request clarification.  Below please find a response from Extell’s Vice President, Donna Gargano.  If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact Jared Chausow in my office and he will relay them.  Ms. Gargano’s response is reprinted below:

“Thank you for your inquiry on the status of Riverside Center and the school that is being developed in Building 2 (the building at the southwest corner of West End Avenue and West 61st Street).
 
Extell has been working closely for many months with the School Construction Authority to develop the design for the school itself and to integrate the design of the school seamlessly into Building 2. We have made significant progress toward establishing both the school’s building envelope and the layout of its interior.

Progress on this work has not been affected by the offering of both Building 2 and Building 5 (the building fronting on WEA on the block south of Building 2) for sale.
 
The land use approvals granted to Riverside Center by the City Planning Commission and the City Council require that the school be located in one of the first two of the project’s buildings to be completed.  This obligation, like the other obligations incorporated in these approvals, is binding on all successor owners of any portion of the Riverside Center site, including any purchaser as a result of the current offering.”