By Sophia Rosenbaum

Chocolatier Jacques Torres’ business is booming at his Brooklyn shop—but melting on Hudson Street.

Torres attributes the success of his Dumbo outlet to the area’s rezoning, which sparked a residential boom. He’s hoping the same will happen in Hudson Square, an area in west Soho, where a rezoning plan that would change the area from largely a manufacturing district to a mixed-use district is the subject of dispute.

“If you want a neighborhood, you have to bring character to the neighborhood,” Torres said. “A small bar. Someone who can make bread. People selling books, a small grocery store. All of those things make a neighborhood.”

Torres and other Hudson Square business owners got a glimmer of hope for their rezoning plea Oct. 18, when Community Board 2 nixed the proposal but set the stage for a compromise. The board wants building heights set out in the zoning plan lowered, more open space put aside and part of the adjacent South Village to be landmarked.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” board chair David Gruber said about the preservation of the South Village. “We have to save it from getting knocked down, because if it lags too much behind, we’ll lose a lot of buildings.”

Trinity Real Estate, which owns 40 percent of the property in Hudson Square, has been working for a decade on promoting the rezoning project, which would affect a 34-block swath bounded by the West Side Highway, Morton and Barrow streets, Sixth Avenue and Hudson Street, and Canal Street.

About 4 percent of the area is currently designated as residential, which translates to a few hundred people, according to Lloyd Kaplan, whose law firm represents Trinity. Kaplan said the proposed rezoning could bring 6,000 new residents.

“It’s a significant gain, but hardly an overwhelming one,” Kaplan said. “It seems like the right kind of balance that would produce around-the-clock 24/7 activity that supports retail developments that are so important to the future of any area.”

Andrew Berman, the executive director for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said he was “pleased with the language” in the board’s recommendation.

“It seems as though the community board recognizes that this is absolutely essential,” Berman said. “Rezoning will only accelerate the destruction of the South Village.”

The zoning proposal calls for building-height limits of 320 feet on avenues and 185 feet on narrower side streets. The board wants to limit building height on avenues to 250 feet for buildings with affordable housing and 210 feet for those without. On side streets, the board wants a maximum of 185 feet with affordable housing and 165 feet without.

Berman believes the board’s height limits are still too high, saying the numbers encourage out of character high-rise buildings.

“Hudson Square is more densely built up than Soho and the Village, but it’s not Midtown,” Berman said. “They come too close to allowing the mistakes that have already happened, like the Trump Soho building.”

But local merchants see rezoning as much-needed progress.

“It’s just the evolution of the city, and it happens all the time,” said Peter Howlett, director of design at the upscale furniture showroom George Smith, which has a branch on Hudson Street.

Nicholas Balint, manager of the Hudson Square Pharmacy, believes it’s inevitable that bigger chain stores will inhabit the area without zoning changes.

“You’re going to get a Jamba Juice and a J. Crew next to 200-year-old buildings,” Balint said.

Balint and Torres, who both referred to Hudson Square as a “ghost town” at nights and on weekends, are hopeful the rezoning will bring new life to their businesses.

“How can this neighborhood live like this?” Torres asked. “We need people to come to this neighborhood to make it alive.”

By Howard Mandel

Latest music organization to enter the tight local real estate market: the Jazz Gallery, which lost the lease on its loft at Hudson and Spring streets after 17 years. Moving an ongoing venture at any time is painful, but seldom worse than right now in Manhattan, where the Gallery wants to stay. Still, the can-do spirit that has exemplified the Gallery since its founding prevails. Executive director Deborah Steinglass takes the task as an opportunity for growth, calling the effort “A Home Run.”

The Gallery is a unique venue that has introduced scores of progressive musicians at modest prices to local audiences while also exhibiting jazz-related visual art. It’s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, neither bar nor restaurant but low-key listening room, with good sight lines and folding chairs. It’s larger than The Stone, its nearest relative aesthetically speaking (but way across town), and the vibe is more relaxed. It was established in 1996 by Dale Fitzgerald, who retired three years ago to work as business manager to trumpeter Roy Hargrove (also present at the Gallery’s birth), and has been booked since 2000 by Rio Sakairi.

From its start, the Gallery’s focus has been on emerging artists—many of whom have been émigrés, lending the place an international cast—plus experimentation and large ensembles. It’s hard for little-known big bands to find rehearsal space, a stage, open-minded curators or curious listeners, yet the Gallery has even commissioned large ensemble works (with grants from private funders and government agencies).

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society had its “jazz venue” debut there in 2007; pianist Orrin Evans and his Captain Black Big Band performed there in early April; and Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra is nearing the end of its twice-monthly residency, during which open-to-the-public rehearsals are followed by full concerts. Alto saxophonist Steve Coleman has enjoyed a long-running Monday evening workshop, recently in alternation with composer/reeds player Henry Threadgill. Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, drummer-bandleader Dafnis Prieto, pianist Jason Moran, saxophonist Miguel Zenon, guitarist Lionel Loueke, singer Gretchen Parlato and bassist Linda Oh are Gallery favorites who’ve graduated to gigs at the Village Vanguard, Jazz Standard, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, MacArthur fellowships and far-reaching tours. They return to the Gallery for special events.

Impressed and want to be the Gallery’s new landlord? “We are looking for a new space that will maintain the intimacy and warmth of our current venue,” reads a communiqué from Steinglass on the Gallery’s website. “It must provide musicians with great performance room acoustics, rehearsal space, and the ability to record and stream live music. We are committed to continuing to offer more than 180 performances a year, residency commissions, and The Woodshed, which provides free rehearsal space to musicians who have performed here.”

The place may get noisy sometimes, so those with tender eardrums need not apply. However, potential lessors are probably less worried about the noise level than the bottom line. The Gallery has launched a $250,000 capital campaign to support the move and provide a cash reserve (donate through JazzGallery.org or send checks to the Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson St., New York, NY 10013).

If $250,000 sounds like a lot, consider that Jazz at Lincoln Center raised $3.6 million—14 times as much—with its mid-April gala that showcased Paul Simon with Wynton Marsalis’ LCJO. The National Jazz Museum in Harlem has begun a $22 million campaign to build a facility and a $2.5 million endowment. Roulette spent $3.5 mil opening its new home near Atlantic Yards, with $447,000 from the office of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The Gallery should survive.

Contact the author at jazzmandel@gmail.com