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Ritzy downtown leaves mom-and-pops out

By David Freedlander, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

January 30, 2008

Even before the Twin Towers rose above lower Manhattan, Delphi's Restaurant served classic Greek food to the few denizens of one of the last undiscovered neighborhoods on the borough.

For 37 years, the owner of the family restaurant, Vasily Moutsatsos, survived two attacks on the World Trade Center, the boom and bust of economic cycles, and more recently, never-ending construction as the neighborhood around him prospered.

But Moutsatsos couldn't survive the "new downtown," a neighborhood where Tiffany and Hermes have just opened shops and where developer Larry Silverstein announced plans Tuesday to open up a new 912-foot-tall Four Seasons condo/hotel.

In October the restaurant on Broadway closed. High-end restaurateur David Bouley is opening a Japanese eatery in its stead.

"The story is the ones who lives there all these years can't afford $60 dollars for lunch," Moutsatsos said. "They could spend $20 at my place and get their money worth. But the neighborhood is different now."

Indeed, and one need only look to the plans unveiled by Silverstein Tuesday for evidence. The 80-story tower at 99 Church St., designed by Robert A.M. Stern, will consist of 175 rooms, a five-star restaurant, and 143 luxury condominiums, some as large 6,500 square feet. It will tower above the Woolworth Building, which was the tallest in the world when it was built in 1913.

"[This] serves as further validation of Downtown's ongoing transformation into a dynamic, sustainable, and unparalleled urban community," Silverstein said.

Some wonder, though, if the desire to lure residents and businesses back has made the neighborhood a victim of its own success, and that it has been too much, too soon.

"What has made downtown culturally significant is the fact that we are integrated economically," said Alan Gerson (D-Manhattan), who represents the area in the City Council, and who mentioned Delphi's as his favorite place to go for a spinach pie. "We don't want to become a monolithically expensive area. We are losing old Greek restaurants to upscale Bouley's. Now I don't have any place to go for spinach pie."

Gerson and others though all stressed that in balance they were in favor of Four Season's opening up in the area.

"We have succeeded in sending a message that this will be a vibrant, full-service community," said Avi Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. "Government has to serve all residents and they all need different services."

Residents also hoped that the opening of a new hotel--and there are eight under way downtown -- will keep tourists from staying in midtown.

"We are about to have 5 million visitors a year to the World Trade Center Memorial," said Julie Menin, chair of the local community board. "Anything we can do to bring 24/7 uses downtown is a good thing."