Tribeca’s P.S. 150 dodges eviction

By Michael Garofalo

P.S. 150 will still be moving, but not quite as soon as expected.

City official have reached a deal with P.S. 150’s landlord to extend the Tribeca elementary school’s expiring lease, keeping the school in its longtime home at Tribeca’s Independence Plaza apartment until 2022.

The news comes just weeks after P.S. 150 students, parents and staff received notification that the school would be relocated after the current school year due to the city’s inability to reach a new lease agreement with Independence Plaza owners Stellar Management and Vornado Realty Trust. Stellar and Vornado plan to eventually use the space now occupied by the school for new apartments and amenities for residents.

The deal will allow P.S. 150’s roughly 180 students to remain in place until 2022, when they will move to a new school to be housed in a luxury condominium tower now under construction at 28-42 Trinity Place. Plans previously called for P.S. 150 to be temporarily relocated to the Peck Slip School next year, then moved again to the Trinity Place school in 2022.

A spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the mayor called Vornado CEO Steven Roth to make a personal appeal to save the school. Margaret Chin, who represents Lower Manhattan in the City Council, was also closely involved in the effort to extend the lease, the spokesperson said. In an emailed statement attributed to de Blasio, the spokesperson wrote, “Thanks to Steven Roth and Vornado, and to Councilmember Chin, P.S. 150 will be able to stay at its current location until the planned move to their new school site in several years from now. This is a big win for these kids and parents.”

A spokesperson for Independence Plaza ownership wrote, “As businesses with deep roots in the City of New York who care about our neighborhoods, Vornado Realty Trust and Stellar Management are pleased to have worked with Mayor de Blasio, Councilmember Chin, and other elected officials and parent leaders to reach a collaborative agreement that keeps P.S. 150 at Independence Plaza until the summer of 2022.”

The Broadsheet first reported that a deal had been reached.