B.S.A.

The Board of Standards and Appeals met once again last night to discuss the fate of the 62-unit, 11-story development at 182 15th Street in the South Slope. Land-use aficionados will remember that this is one of several disputed projects currently in limbo after the much-praised rezoning of the South Slope in November of last year, where new building heights were severely limited on the streets and expanded on the avenues.

Well, keep hoilding your breath--the B.S.A. made no decision last night concerning the project. It's due to meet next month--July 25, to be precise--and we're told a decision will be made then.
The plot of land on which the development sits was originally zoned as R6, which has no maximum height cutoff; rather, height is governed by sky-exposure planes, beginning at 60 feet above the lot line, which the building cannot penetrate. After the rezoning, it turned into R6B, which has a maximum building height of 50 feet--period. The developer of 182 15th Street, Isaac Katan, has been trying to convince the B.S.A. that the foundation of the project was laid prior to the 2005 rezoning, which would allow it to continue under the old zoning. Area residents, in turn, have accused the developer of cheating to beat the deadline, with unsafe and after-hours work without a permit.
Reached by phone, Howard Hornstein, the developer's attorney, was optimistic about the project's future, but would not paint himself into any corners (after all, he in an attorney), simply saying, Hopefully, [the project] will be sustained. There's substantial progress on the foundation. We're hopeful."  read more »

-Matthew Grace

The Board of Standards and Appeals approved Related Companies' plan to build a 190-foot, 160,000-square-foot residential tower at the site of the Superior Ink factory at Bethune and West streets in Greenwich Village earlier today.

This is a partial victory for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has been lobbying the B.S.A. to quash, or at least scale down, Related's project. It was originally designed to be 270 feet tall.

This should be one of the last new towers to go up in the neighborhood; last year the Department of City Planning down-zoned the whole area after a push by preservation activists and locals who were concerned about all the new, large-scale developments, such as the Meier towers on Perry and Charles streets, going up.

In a press release, GVSHP executive director Andrew Berman vowed to keep pressuring the Landmarks Preservation Commission to landmark the Superior Ink factory: "This historic neighborhood deserves nothing less."  read more »

-Matthew Grace

Last night, Community Board 2 gave a reluctant nod to a new development at the site of the current Tunnel Garage, at 520 Broome Street at the corner of Thompson Street. The board also passed a resolution calling on the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider landmarking the current building, which was built in 1922 and designed by H.O. Hamilton, but as David Reck, the chair of the board's zoning committee said, "As far as getting it landmarked before construction proceeds, it's not going to happen."

The new building will be eight stories tall with 48 residential units in floors two through eight, and will have 7,340 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and 117 parking spaces underground. The board made several stipulations in its resolution: The developer must engage in discussions with the community and adjust its designed to address community concerns; the massing should be redesigned to accommodate as many lot line windows as possible; and as much of the historic facade should be preserved as possible.  read more »

The project must go through the Board of Standards and Appeals still, as a zoning variance is needed before it begins. It has not yet been calendared at the B.S.A.

-Matthew Grace

Lighthouse Real Estate Ventures got the nod from the Board of Standards and Appeals on Tuesday for the addition of an either 11- or 13-story residential tower to its retail complex at 350 West Broadway (the B.S.A. says it's 13 stories; Lighthouse says it's 11). Groundbreaking on the project will begin at the end of this year, according to Lighthouse, and it'll be complete approximately 18 months later. The residential units will be condos, but prices and other details haven't been set yet; the retail spaces, which range from 1,900 to 4,700 square feet, will go for around $200 per square foot, according to the broker, Sinvin Realty. -Matthew Grace  read more »

A new 114,319-square-foot, eight-story residential development on the corner of at 253 Atlantic Avenue (corner of Boerum Place) got the green light from the Board of Standards and Appeals last week. Currently the site of a Mobil gas station, the 64-unit development will finally fill in the squalid gap between downtown Brooklyn and Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens on the Atlantic Avenue strip.

The B.S.A. had to sign off on variances for floor-area ratio, lot coverage and building height requirements.

Views from this building, when completed, will include the lovely, but now defunct, Brooklyn House of Detention right across the street.

This stretch of Atlantic Avenue is booming: the Courthouse, Two Trees' giant newly opened luxe development, is a block away; the Board of Education condo conversion is nearby; and Two Trees' other currently stalled condo project will be atop and adjacent the Independence Bank one block west.

And another Two Trees venture was kicked at and scratched by Brooklyn Community Board 6 last week, but wasn't bitten. The board's land-use and landmarks committee recommended denying Two Trees' application for a rooftop extension on a factory and loft building at 164-168 Atlantic Avenue between Clinton and Court streets. The Italianate-style building was constructed in 1859-1864 and is noted for its stone quoins and bracketed roof cornices.

The property is currently already in the middle of a renovation into an 18-unit, 22,340-square-foot residence. Although Two Trees' has the necessary permits to convert the property, a larger bulkhead, according to board members at the meeting, is necessary because of the switch from commercial use to residential (showers, toilets, etc. take up more hot water, so more mechanicals are necessary on the rooftop).

Despite assurances from Two Trees representative Laura Cheng and attorney J.H. Beyer--who said that the "primary goal is restoration," the bulkhead would be "unobtrusive as possible" and "the spirit of the project is still intact"--the committee was not happy with the changes. Board members called the new bulkhead "distinctly jarring with the antique building," and some suggested "something screwy is going on"--perhaps not pleased that the original plans, already approved by the board, are being changed so drastically. The full board still has to vote on this before it goes back to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for a final decision.

Interestingly, the Historic Districts Council testified before the L.P.C. in 2003 that it had concerns regarding the proposed bulkhead design; it explicitly stated that a historically accurate design be used. Two years later and it's the same old problem.  read more »

- Matthew Grace

Robert De Niro's plan to build an 83-room, seven-story brick-and-terra-cotta boutique hotel in Tribeca is becoming a reality.

He and partner and hotelier Ira Drukier got approval to build on the property at the corner of Greenwich and N. Moore Streets, owned by Mr. De Niro, and most recently used as a parking lot and a welcoming center for the actor's Tribeca Film Festival.

The Board of Standards and Appeals made the vote today for the spot just north of the World Trade Center site; for building there, Messrs. De Niro and Drukier are receiving $38.9 million in Liberty Bonds for the project. (The Liberty Bond program was conceived after Sept. 11 to help revitalize downtown by providing tax-free loans to developers.)

According to Irving Gotbaum, a lawyer representing the development team, the project started construction some time ago. "We took a risk [by starting construction before getting the approvals] and believed we could make the case to the B.S.A."

Ultimately, he was proved right. The B.S.A. granted an increased floor-area ratio and the elimination of the 85-foot setback requirement.  read more »

Mr. Gotbaum told The Real Estate that the hotel should be finished in approximately one year. - Matthew Grace

A collective sigh of relief could be heard emanating from New York University's Kaufman Management C  read more »

For a city with a past as brilliant and a future as promising as New York's, it's troubling that the  read more »