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First came the demolition, then the underground swimming pool, and now the drilling.
What started as a run-of-the-mill $18.5m townhouse sale in Manhattan’s exclusive Gramercy Park neighborhood, has become a four-year fiasco that reached new heights this week, even as the project has plunged to new depths.
On Monday, drilling began for a 1,600-foot geothermal well below the home of socialite and contributing Vogue editor Lauren Santo Domingo and her husband Andres Santo Domingo, the heir to Colombia’s richest beer family.
“The noise is horrendous,” said Pamela Vassil, a writer who has lived on the opposite side of the park for 40 years. “If I lived next door I’d have to be on Xanax or Valium or something, otherwise I’d blow my brains out.”
Geothermal wells, which tap into the heat of the Earth’s core in order to heat, cool and light houses without greenhouse gas emissions, are increasingly popular in New York. But most go in without a headache.
In 2012, the days-long blackout triggered by hurricane Sandy caused many New Yorkers to think better of relying on the city’s outdated power grid. For those who could afford the tens of thousands of dollars in upfront costs, geothermal energy emerged as an attractive alternative to plugging into the public supply.
“People realized climate change wasn’t about the polar ice caps melting, it was about blackouts in downtown Manhattan,” said John P DiEnna Jr, the director of the Geothermal National & International Initiative, an industry trade group. “So now there are more going in every day.”
DiEnna estimates there are about 30 geothermal wells in New York City, but he says none have caused as much drama as the project in Gramercy, the concerns over which were first reported by DNAInfo.
“No one is against geothermal technology, but the question is, is it appropriate to build one for a single family that endangers the whole community,” said Gary Baddeley, a 25-year resident of the neighborhood who works in the entertainment industry.
Gramercy is one of New York’s most famous neighborhoods. Its centerpiece is a fenced-in park that requires a key to unlock. The key is only handed out to residents who live in the surrounding buildings.
“It’s so lovely and pastoral here,” said Vassil. “When it snows it’s like a fairyland. But when the drilling starts I swear you’d think you were in an oilfield in Oklahoma.”
The noise isn’t the only problem for neighbors: construction has blocked off a sidewalk and one lane of traffic, meaning kids from a nearby synagogue and their parents and nannies, as well as bicyclists, cars, and trucks have to share a narrow corridor.
No one has been injured yet, but at least two trees surrounding the park have been hit by trucks, forcing the city’s parks department to remove them.
“The parks department barely touches trees. They wouldn’t even take down a tree if there was a child stuck under it, but they had to take down two trees for this project,” said Arlene Harrison, the self-proclaimed mayor of Gramercy, who has lived in the neighborhood for 43 years. “It’s like we’re in a circus, but not a happy circus.”
Harrison says builders and owners at every other construction project around the park have worked with her to minimize disruption to the neighborhood. She hasn’t heard from the Santo Domingos since they bought the house and began the process of demolishing everything but the facade in 2010.
Tony Hume, a representative for the family’s townhouse, would not comment for this story.
“The neighborhood is held hostage by their privilege,” said Vassil. “I mean I’m happy for them and their money, but they owe the neighborhood for these four years. Now they might move in and wonder why their neighbors aren’t friendly.”
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