Harlem Mixed-Use Project Approved Despite Community Board Disapproval

BSA granted use, area, and parking variances to permit construction of 13-story residential, commercial, and community facility building. Nicholas Parking Corporation and Ladera, LLC, owners of adjacent properties at 223-237 St. Nicholas Avenue, applied for building permits to develop a 169,192-square-foot, mixed-use building on St. Nicholas Avenue between West 121st and West 122nd Streets in Harlem. The project would include a FRESH program food store on the first floor and cellar, a preschool … <Read More>


BSA Approves Upper West Side Townhouse Addition

Owners’ plan to enlarge fourth-floor co-op violated multiple dwelling law. In December 2010, Felix and Lisa Oberholzer-Gee sought a building permit to enlarge their 1,000-square-foot, fourth-floor co-op in a five-unit townhouse at 159 West 78th Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Oberholzer-Gees proposed building a set-back, 646-square-foot rooftop addition. Buildings denied the permit because the plans violated the multiple dwelling law’s restrictions on enlargements of converted dwellings. The Oberholzer-Gees applied to the Board … <Read More>


Two Queens projects get go ahead despite rezoning

Developers had begun but not completed foundations when the Council approved rezoning proposal. On June 24, 2011, the owner of a corner lot at 64-01 Woodside Avenue in Woodside, Queens obtained a foundation permit to begin construction on a proposed seven-story, 24,022 sq.ft. building with 27 apartments. On July 26, 2011, the owner of two lots at 69- 17 and 69-19 38th Avenue in Woodside obtained building permits to build two four-story buildings with a … <Read More>


Development grandfathered: foundations 91% complete

A Portion of a proposed fourteen-home development along Woodrow Road and Turner Street in Staten Island. Image: Courtesy Think Design Architecture.

Developer poured 91 percent of the foundations of fourteen-home development before the City Council approved the Sandy Ground Rezoning. Prior to February 2010, a developer obtained excavation and foundation permits and began work on a fourteen-building development on a 44,069 sq.ft. lot at Woodrow Road and Turner Street in Staten Island. The developer planned … <Read More>


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 okays 16-story bldg. one year after rezoning

Council Member Letitia James opposed vested right claim. On March 4, 2008, BSA allowed construction of a 16-story building at 163 Washington Avenue to move forward despite the fact that the building is out of compliance with the recently adopted Fort Greene- Clinton Hill Rezoning plan. The building will have community facility use on the first floor with residential use in the remainder of the building. It will also have a second- floor terrace, supported … <Read More>