Daily News from New York, New York • 97

Deficit could halt By OWEN MORITZ commuter buses By DON WEINBRENNER jEAL ESTATE KINGPIN Harry Helmsley 'IX PRIVATE BUS companies which annual and 19 partners, charging a breach of faith by the Koch administration, served nntirp ly serve 100 million Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens passengers have warned Mayor has a right to build because the towers were in French's original plans. Twice in recent years, the Koch administration and Helmsley's syndicate had reached tentative agreement on a "swap" of the parkland in return for buildable land on the East Side. The first deal involved the city giving Helmsley a city-owned park at 42d St. and First opposite the United Nations Secretariat. Helmsley planned a 41-story tower with a design similar to the Secretariat.

But other builders, notably Helmsley's archrival, Donald Trump, charged the city was being stiffed because the 42d St. site is worth more than the Tudor City parks. When that deal fell through, the Koch administration offered a site at E. 51st St. and First former home of the United Nations School.

But Koch's Department of General Services argued the city could get more by auctioning off the E. 51st St. site. This deal fell through, too. As part of any deal, the city would legalize the JTudor City parcels as parks and maintain them.

Scanlan disclosed that on Dec. 10, four East Side lawmakers Rep. William Green, State Sen. Roy Goodman, Assemblyman Steven Sanders and Councilman Robert J. Dryfoos along with Borough President Andrew Stein had urged the mayor in a letter to approve the E.

51st site. Scanlan says the swap would have meant the city "could have gotten the Tudor City parks without spending a dime. If the city is adopting this view because it believes we will not build at Tudor City, it is grossly mistaken." yesterday that they will tear down two private parks in Tudor City for high-rise construction in 15 days. Lawyers for Helmsley-Spear, construction and management arm, said they would "exercise their property rights" and begin work Feb. 12 on two luxury towers, worth $50 million-one 28 stories, the other 29 stories on the parcels that sit on either side of E.

42d between First and Second Aves. The move ends a truce in place since 1980. In addition, Harry Scanlan, director of development for Helmsley-Spear, said the 20-partner syndicate will also file a $50 million damage suit-against the city for out-of-pocket expenses, including taxes, paid since 1971 on the sites. The action will likely trigger a new legal battle and sit-ins by tenants in the development, long opposed to Helmsley's construction plans. At issue are two leafy parcels left undeveloped by Tudor City's builder, the late Fred French, when he ran into financial problems in the Depression after finishing, most of the complex.

Tudor City is often viewed as the nation's first private urban renewal development. The parcels have been used as parks by generations of East Siders. But Helmsley, claiming he is paying $500,000 a year in property taxes for the parcels, contends he Koch and other Board of Estimate members that a complete shutdown of operations will occur March 1 if $12.5 million in financial assistance, which they claim was promised through earlier agreement, is not granted then. Some of the lines provide a vital link between Manhattan and the other boroughs for workers and shoppers. The letter, dated Jan.

25 and signed by executives of Queens Transit, Jamaica Buses, Steinway Transit, Green Bus Lines, Triboro Coach Corp. and Command Bus Lines, threatened "a complete shutdown of all our operations on March 1, 1982, unless the funds required to make up our deficits and reflect our negotiated understanding with the city are received before that date." In an attached financial schedule, the companies, which have been in business more than 50 years, outlined projected deficits of approximately. $12.5 million during 1980 and 1981 and reminded city officials that during the lines' financial hardships of 1980, the city agreed with the companies on a formula that would provide a specified rate of return that would keep the lines running. Specifically, the companies said the agreement provided that they would be entitled to a rate of return based on a formula -of 8Vz, after taxes, on their depreciated assets. At City Hall, the mayor's executive administrator, Ronay Menschel, said that the Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the requests, as well as the current status of state subsidies "for a better view of the situation." A church rebuilds with determination Continued from cover 4' ft 1 I if 4 0 I TOM MlOOLEMliS bAlLV NbWS Patch up work is already going on at church.

sented to Community Board 2 and to the Landmarks Preservation Committee, which has final approval on the building's design plan. The church sits on a block that houses 10 original federal row houses built between 1825 and 1828, a nursery and elementary school, a playground, two flower gardens, a of frees and greenery, and a wooden sign on the church's front yard dating from May 1822, which reads: "Friend, this Village Church open stands for thee." And indeed, according to its supporters, St. Luke in the Fields was a sanctuary for a lot of different folks. It ran a school, sponsored hot lunches daily and a social programs for 50 senior citizens, and from time to time opened its door to a dozen different groups and agencies, ranging from Alcoholics Anonymous to study groups on nuclear policy. It was also a retreat for those seeking a few quiet moments away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

The old church was simple in design, built along classic federal lines, featuring polished pine benches that held red-and-blue prayer books on their backs, a black-and-white diamond-shaped tile floor, and a rood screen of black, polished columns, which separated the altar from the pews. The church's communion area in front of the altar was installed in the 1890s, made of stones that were walls from the burial vaults of the church's founders. The design for the new church will not attempt to duplicate the church built in 1821, but will bear a resemblance, for Rev. Laughlin believes that any attempts at creating a carbon copy of the 19th-century structure would only lead to endless comments that "it just doesn't look the same." "We don't want to disappoint our parishioners and friends," he said. "We want them to recognize that something new came out of our disaster." and Christopher Sts.

and set up shop. In September, after playing her violin on weekends for five months, she turned over to Rev. Laughlin $2,000 that she had raised. "I guess," he said, "we have been here so long that the church has become intricately related to the West -Village. I believe its rural style- reminds people of the distant past we yearn for these days." And similarly, over the years New Yorkers have rallied to the aid of other churches in the city after they were razed by fire.

For example, two years after the 183-year-old St. Mark's Church in the Bowery was destroyed by fire in July 1978, the church was rebuilt with $1.7 million raised by the congregation and friends. As soon as the ashes had settled at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Middle Village, Queens in April 1977, the congregation began rebuilding the 70-year-old church, a landmark building. Completion of St. Luke's has been slated for the summer of 1983, and although the is a long way from the $5 million it needs.

Rev. Laughlin remains optimistic that the funds will come, for few people have turned their backs to them so far. For example, Laughlin said that last November some 100 parishioners began canvassing in the West Village and have raised $34,000 from residents and merchants. Similar efforts and other fund-raising tactics and benefits will be continued throughout the year, he (The church was insured but Laughlin refused to estimate how much it will be reimbursed from its policy.) This Tuesday afternoon, at the undamaged rectory next door to the church, architectural plans for rebuilding the landmark building will be presented to the boards of directors of the Landmarks Conservancy, the Municipal Arts Society and the Village Preservation Trust Later in the month, similar plans will be pre Florists receive a bouquet By JOHN TOSCANO FT3ACED WITH STEEP RENTS AND traffic snarls, the city's major I wholesale florists want to move the flower district from Manhattan to LJ and yesterday the City Council voted to help them by approving an application for a $1.26 million federal grant. The proposal, which now goes to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for final approval, was made by a partnership of four wholesale firms currently in the flower market that occupies several blocks along Sixth Ave.

below W. 30th St. In the past five years, according to a city Department of Economic Development report, the market's annual gross has shrunk from $600 million to $200 million because congestion and lack of loading facilities and "affordable" expansion space has dispersed business, forcing some of it to New Jersey and Westchester. The project sponsors have committed almost $3.7 million in addition to line grant to purchase a parcel of land between Linden Place and 21st Ave. in the College Point Industrial Park to build a facility for themselves and another to be leased to other firms.

There would also be a restaurant and parking space. It is projected that the project would create 163 new jobs and retain 70 others..