Proposed zoning map. Credit: DCP

Local community board generally supported 90-block rezoning, but requested that portion of West 145th Street be downzoned to protect existing HUD buildings. On October 3, 2012, the City Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee heard testimony on the Department of City Planning’s proposal to rezone 90 blocks in West Harlem. The rezoning would impact approximately 1,900 lots generally bounded by West 155th Street to the north, West 126th Street to the south, Bradhurst Avenue to the east, and Riverside Drive to the west. City Planning’s proposal seeks to protect the area’s existing residential character, create incentives for affordable housing development, encourage appropriate growth along retail corridors, and create opportunities for mixed-use development in the area’s manufacturing zone.

West Harlem is predominantly characterized by medium-density residential development, including three- to four-story rowhouses and larger five- to six-story apartment buildings. Taller residential buildings can be found on the blocks between Broadway and Riverside Drive. A major retail corridor with active residential use spans West 145th Street, while commercial overlays also cover portions of Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. A small manufacturing area located in the southernmost tip of the rezoning area includes the partially demolished former Taystee Cake Factory complex, the Mink Building, and Metropolitan Transit Authority facilities.

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Corn Exchange Building proposal (does not reflect LPC modifications). Credit: Danois Architects

Artimus Construction plans to restore the deteriorated remains of the original six-story Harlem landmark. On September 11, 2012, Landmarks approved Artimus Construction’s redevelopment proposal for the severely dilapidated Mount Morris Bank, also known as the Corn Exchange building, at 81 East 125th Street in Harlem. Landmarks designated the 1884 six-story building as an individual City landmark in 1993. The red-brick building once featured a combination of Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival-style architecture and terra cotta and iron ornament, but has rapidly deteriorated since its designation.

The building was abandoned in the 1970s, and lost its mansard roof to a fire in the late 1990s. In 2000, the City’s Economic Development Corporation selected Ethel Bates to rehabilitate the building and turn it into a culinary school. Bates failed to maintain the property, and EDC sued to reclaim title. Landmarks later filed a demolition-by-neglect lawsuit against Bates, citing the building’s missing windows and collapsed floors. In 2009, Buildings partially demolished the building’s remaining top two floors citing dangerous conditions above the second floor. Two years later, EDC issued an RFEI seeking a developer to rehabilitate the building.

On April 24, 2012, Artimus Construction presented its initial plan to Landmarks. Artimus’ Barry Gurvitch described the proposal as an attempt to “recreate the grandeur and ambiance” of the original Corn Exchange, while also creating (more…)

Credit: The Department of City Planning

City Planning Commission certified 140-block Bed-Stuy North Rezoning and 90-block West Harlem Rezoning: included in the Brooklyn proposal is a text amendment that would also apply Citywide and to areas of the Bronx. At City Planning Commission’s review session on May 7, 2012, the Commission certified the Department of City Planning’s contextual rezoning proposal for the northern half of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The Bedford-Stuyvesant North Rezoning plan would impact a 140-block area generally bounded by Flushing Avenue to the north, Quincy Street to the south, Broadway to the east, and Classon and Franklin Avenues to the west. The proposal was requested by Brooklyn Community Board 3 and local elected officials after the City rezoned the southern half of the neighborhood in 2007. (read CityLand’s coverage here).

Bedford-Stuyvesant is a residential neighborhood characterized by late 19th- and early 20th-century rowhouses, small and medium-sized apartment buildings, and several large, tower-in-the-park NYCHA (more…)

Two-building project will include market-rate condominiums on West 116th Street and an affordable rental building on West 117th Street. On August 17, 2011, the City Council approved L+M Development Partners Inc.’s proposal to develop two mixed-use buildings on a through block lot between West 117th and West 116th Streets, in the block between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem. The midblock project will be developed on a lot currently used by an adjacent building as a parking lot and a basketball court. L+M requested a rezoning to facilitate the construction of a twelve-story condominium building fronting West 116th Street and a nine-story affordable housing building fronting West 117th Street.  (more…)

Two-building project would include affordable rental building and market- rate condominium building. On July 13, 2011, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on L+M Development Partners Inc.’s proposed 266,500 sq.ft. mixed-use project for a through-block lot on the north side of West 116th Street between Malcolm X Boulevard and Fifth Avenue in Harlem. The midblock project site is occupied by a basketball court and a parking lot. L+M plans to redevelop the site with a twelve-story market-rate condominium building fronting West 116th Street and a nine-story affordable rental building fronting West 117th Street.

The eastern portion of West 116th Street, including the project site, is zoned R7-2. The rest of the block to the west is zoned C4-5X. To facilitate the development, L+M requested that the C4-5X district be extended east to include the entire block. The rezoning area includes a Baptist church and two mid-rise residential buildings.  (more…)