Eli Zabar Is No NIMBY, Lawyers Tell Upper East Side Shelter Defenders

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Restaurateur Eli Zabar is pushing back against criticism for his efforts to block a homeless shelter from being built in Yorkville, saying through his attorneys that his concerns center on construction safety — and that he's no NIMBY.

After dozens of Upper East Side residents wrote to Zabar last week, asking him to drop his objections to the planned Safe Haven on East 91st Street, Zabar's lawyers have responded in their own letter, which was shared with Patch.

Attorney Daniel Schneider said Zabar believes that the developers of the planned shelter at 419 East 91st St. still need to prove that their plans to dig a new building foundation will not damage the roof or foundation of Zabar's own building next door, which houses a children's gymnastics studio.

"The developer has been attempting and seems to have done a good job framing this as some sort of philosophical issue and/or an invocation of 'not in my back yard,'" Schneider wrote.

But court records, he said, tell "the true story."

Indeed, a previous lawsuit against Zabar by shelter developers Bayrock Capital fizzled earlier this year, when a Manhattan Supreme Court Justice agreed that Bayrock had not shown that the project could proceed safely.

In Bayrock's new lawsuit, filed in July, the developers said they had resolved those problems by giving Zabar "each and every plan" that his lawyers had requested.

Zabar's team never responded to those plans, the developers said — though his lawyers did shoot back a fiery email on Valentine's Day, blasting the developer's "deficient plans and cowboy attitude" for continuing to seek access to Zabar's property.

"This goes so far beyond that"

While Zabar's lawyers told residents that claims of NIMBYism had been waged mostly through the news media, the shelter developers made the same accusation in private emails, court records show.

"We have been trying to schedule a meeting for nearly a year," wrote David Peraino, a lawyer for the developers, in an April email to Zabar's attorney.

"I understand that you believe your firm has leverage here, and that you obtained a favorable court ruling. All I can say is that the honest truth is you personally are assisting in delaying the construction of a homeless shelter. I understand you have a job, but this goes so far beyond that."

In their new letter to neighbors, Zabar's lawyers did not address the most explosive claims made by the developers: that Zabar pledged in an April meeting to do "everything he could to delay" the Safe Haven, and that he had sought to limit use of the shelter to only one gender.

Schneider, Zabar's lawyer, told Patch that their reply to last week's open letter had generated a "positive response," though he did not respond to questions about which community members had reacted positively. A spokesperson for the Open Hearts Initiative, which helped organize the open letter, said the group had not shared any such feedback with Zabar's team.

Thea Gelbspan, an Upper East Side resident who helped organize last week's community letter to Zabar, told Patch that she was unmoved by his latest defense.

"People who oppose transitional housing for homeless people will often use technical objections when they know they can't stop a site on the merits," said Gelbspan, an organizer for the activist group SURJ NYC.

"If Mr. Zabar does support this Safe Haven, we trust that he will do everything he can to ensure construction can move along," she added.

If built, the seven-story shelter will include 88 beds and be open to adult men and women. Run by the nonprofit Goddard Riverside, the facility will have a low threshold for admission — part of the "housing first" strategy that seeks to move homeless people into housing before offering them other support.

City Councilmember Julie Menin told Patch last week that she supported the Safe Haven, calling on everyone involved to "work collaboratively together" to move it forward.

Other elected officials who helped organize the Safe Haven include Menin's predecessor Ben Kallos, State Sen. Liz Krueger and former Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

Related coverage:

• Stop Blocking UES Shelter, Neighborhood Leaders Tell Eli Zabar
  
• New UES Shelter Overwhelmingly Backed By Community Board
• New 'Safe Haven' Shelter On Upper East Side Welcomed By Board

Have an Upper East Side news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.