BSA grandfathers 16-story Lower East Side hotel

Hotel developer admits its foundation work damaged adjacent building. Developer D.A.B. Group LLC received a foundation permit on September 29, 2008 for its planned 16-story Lower East Side hotel at Rivington and Orchard Streets. Excavation work began one week after the City Planning Commission voted to downzone the area. D.A.B. then obtained a full building permit at 2:21 p.m. on the day that the City Council voted to approve the East Village/Lower East Side rezoning. … <Read More>


BSA Grants Variance for Transfer of Development Rights to Facilitate a New Charlton Street Development

The transferring property was granted a variance 15 years ago, but the development of the adjacent property had not been under the applicant’s control. On December 6, 2016, the Board of Standards and Appeals unanimously voted to grant 104 Charlton Street Condominium’s request to transfer unused development rights from the applicant’s property, located at 104 Charlton Street, to an adjacent property located at 108 Charlton Street in Manhattan’s Special Hudson Square District. Because the site … <Read More>


Century 21 expands; relieved from moving subway stairs

BSA found the requirement to move subway entrances uneconomic. Century 21 sought a variance to allow a 4,583 sq.ft. expansion on the second floor of its lower Manhattan store and a waiver from the requirement, triggered by the expansion, to relocate two subway entrances from the street to the store’s interior.

Century 21 occupies space in three contiguous buildings in lower Manhattan: the former East River Savings Bank located at 26 Cortlandt Street, a 33-story … <Read More>


New mixed-use building okayed after size reduction

Variance will allow 11 new dwellings and ground floor commercial in a manufacturing zone. BSA approved a use variance, permitting a five-story residential development with ground floor commercial on an M1-1 zoned lot with unobstructed views of lower Manhattan at the corner of Columbia and Congress Streets in Brooklyn.

When the project site, two lots totaling 4,773 sq.ft., was purchased by the variance applicants, Isaac, Jacqueline, and Maurice Douek, it contained two vacant four -story … <Read More>


BSA Renews Construction Permit in Rezoned Area

Board recognized a vested right to continue construction.  On June 16, 2015 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to extend a construction permit to the applicant, 180 Orchard LLC, for a twenty-four story mixed commercial- and community-use building at 180 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  The building will contain retail on the cellar and ground floors, community space on the mezzanine and second floors, and hotel use through the remaining … <Read More>


Variances Amended To Permit Transfer of Development Rights

BSA found development value of subject lots could not be previously realized.  On December 16, 2014 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to grant the applicants, West 29th Street Owner’s Corp. and The Flower House Condominium, an amendment of previously existing variances on two lots.  The amendment is required to merge the lots into one zoning lot and transfer their development rights to an as-of-right hotel in development on an adjacent site.  The subject … <Read More>