Carlos Zapata
The Cobbler of Cooper Square
“Right now, I’m in labor—I’m going into labor,” declared Klaus Ortlieb, the effusive 50-year-old manager of the forthcoming Cooper Square Hotel, standing on a large Persian rug in the hotel lobby on Nov. 6.
He was speaking metaphorically, of course, about the final push to open the glassy, 23-story, $110 million Carlos Zapata-designed building, which towers over the Bowery at the corner of East Fifth Street.
The analogy might seem apropos except for the fact that, in this case, water-breaking would be a bad thing.
“We have two major inspections tomorrow,” Mr. Ortlieb noted—one of which was plumbing. read more »
¡Viva Zapata!
Developer Horizen Global and architect Carlos Zapata unveiled their plan for the former printing plant and warehouse space at 653 11th Avenue at 48th Street.
For those who haven't been watching the new condo market closely, the firm is a weird hybrid of real-estate developer (SŌMA in Chelsea; Hudson Blue in the West Village) and film-production company (Sundance pick Swimmers, with Cherry Jones).
Plans for the 14-story, 134,176-square-foot building include cutting a wedge in the side of the building, for added light in the newly created condo units, and adding three stories on the rooftop, in addition to a complete interior renovation.
The developers say they'll deed nine units to the nonprofit Clinton Housing Development Company in perpetuity, and the CHDP will voluntarily rent out the units under the city's rent-stabilization scheme. Clinton/Hell's Kitchen residents will be given preference when the affordable-housing units open up.
The plan was unveiled last night at Community Board 4's land-use committee meeting. The building is currently zoned for manufacturing, and the developers are looking for a zoning change for their plan to go ahead. According to Community Board 4 district manager Anthony Borrelli, the project is in its preliminary stage, and Global Horizen is expected to appear before the committee again to iron out any details.
One sticking point might be the number of affordable-housing units: The board has stated that it wants to see a minimum of 30 percent of units set aside for affordable housing in new developments. Global Horizen is only offering up nine units in its current plan, out of a total of 95. That only adds up to 8.4 percent, only a third of what Community Board 4 wants. read more »
- Matthew Grace
