BSA permits bldg. to exceed limits of new rezoning

Owner claimed soil cleanup and structural repair made smaller building infeasible. Prior to the City’s 183-block rezoning of North Brooklyn, Selik Realty sought BSA approval to convert a three-story manufacturing building on North 7th Street and Meeker Avenue in Williamsburg into residential units and to add four additional stories. When the site was rezoned in May 2005, residential use became permitted as of right, but Selik maintained its BSA application, seeking approval of a building … <Read More>


718-space garage approved adjacent to High Line

Garage will be part of large mixed-use project. HLP Properties LLC sought a special permit for a 718- space public parking garage on a Chelsea site spanning an entire city block between West 17th and West 18th Streets and Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. Access to the garage would be located on West 17th Street, a one-way westbound street. The 76,400- square-foot site currently contains a surface parking lot used primarily by the United States Drug … <Read More>


Harlem car wash owner withdraws application

Owner sought to legalize ‘car wash, auto-lubrication station and accessory retail building. 2 113 First Avenue, llC, owner of two lots used for auto-related uses located at 338 East 109th Street in a residential district, sought a variance to legalize the existing car wash, auto-lubrication station and accessory retail building.

In its application to BSA, 2 1 13 represented that the oddly shaped lots and residential zoning made as-of-right development infeasible and that parts of … <Read More>


Three rowhouses to add rear additions

Proposal includes demolition of historic tea rooms. Margaret Streicker applied to Landmarks to alter three adjacent rowhouses on West 22nd Street within the Chelsea Historic District. Streicker proposed to demolish two wood rear porches on the 1851-built pair rowhouses at 327 and 329 West 22nd Street, replacing the porches with four-story additions extending 19 feet from the existing building line and adding one-story rooftop penthouses on each building. On the 1850 Italianate rowhouse at 331 … <Read More>


Circus school gets variance

Trapeze training required higher ceilings. The New Wave Circus Center sought BSA approval to locate a circus school in Coney Island where it planned to offer circus- related classes including tightrope walking, unicycle, trapeze and juggling. To accommodate the space needed for circus activities, New Wave would demolish a one-story commercial building at 2920 Coney Island Avenue and replace it with a newly constructed, 49-foot tall building covering the full extent of the 2,160-square-foot lot. … <Read More>


Sanitation lease limited to 2 years

Controversial garage given short-term lease by Commission frustrated with garage’s continued problems. The Department of Sanitation sought approval for the continued operation of its Brooklyn District 3 Garage at 306 Rutledge Street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Sanitation has operated this garage under a long-term lease with the private owner since 1945. Even though it is located in Brooklyn’s Community District 1, the garage primarily serves adjacent District 3. With its last lease, granted … <Read More>