Comedy club to move into converted slaughterhouse. The Board of Standards & Appeals approved a use variance application allowing a comedy club to move into 351 West 14th Street at the intersection of Hudson Street in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Currently, a four-story, 24- unit apartment building with vacant street retail space occupies the site. The comedy club will move into the vacant 7,915-square-foot retail space and increase its mezzanine by 1,345 sq.ft.

The project site, a lot of 206 feet in depth, is split between two different zoning districts, one residential and one commercial. The proposed comedy club (an eating and drinking establishment) could locate legally in the front 103 feet of the building, which is commercially zoned, but would be an illegal use in the rear 47 ft. of the building, zoned R8B, hence the need for the variance.

The comedy club argued that a permitted use at the site would not survive, explaining that a supermarket failed due to the building’s lack of storage, and other retail users would reject the site because it lacked loading. BSA agreed, conditioning approval on installation of sound buffering.

BSA: 351/53 W. 14th Street (182-04-BZ) (September 21, 2004) (Howard A. Zipser, Esq., Stadtmauer Bailkin Biggins LLC, for club).