Owner withdraws variance application

Owner sought variance to construct catering facility and 89-room hotel. Tikvah Realty LLC, owner of Le Marquise Caterers, a catering facility located at 815 Kings Highway in Homecrest, Brooklyn, applied to BSA for a variance to construct a new catering facility with 89 hotel rooms, ground floor retail, and 394 below-grade accessory parking spaces. The project exceeded the limits on floor area and failed to provide sufficient parking. The proposal called for the catering facility … <Read More>


Developer withdraws variance requests after rezoning

Developer sought variance to build additional 2-family home in flood zone. The developer of three lots located on 130th Street in College Point, Queens, applied to BSA for a variance to construct three, two-family homes on property formerly occupied by the Ariel Rowing and Tennis Club. The developer’s applications represented that a hardship existed due to the lots’ location within a flood zone, which would require that the buildings be constructed on piles and without … <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>


York Ave. tower approved over opposition

New residential tower will be nine feet from adjacent co-op building. On September 28, 2005, the City Council approved a text amendment and special permit to allow construction of a 26-story, mixed-use building at 1129-1133 York Avenue in Manhattan. The proposal called for a zoning map amendment to change the site from C8-4 to C1-9 and a special permit to build a 100-space parking garage.

The developer, the Witkoff Group, plans to use HPD’s Inclusionary … <Read More>


Lincoln Center to enliven West 65th

Changes include street level restaurants and retail, new film center, and expansion of Juilliard and Alice Tully Hall. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts sought approval for the large-scale redesign by New York firms Diller Scofidio+Renfro and Fox and Fowle Architects of its West 65th Street frontage, requiring an amendment to the zoning text and map and acquisition of an easement over City property.

Under the plan, Lincoln Center’s three parking and loading entrances and … <Read More>


Ikea Development Approved; Sent to Council

Ikea to build a 346,000-square-foot waterfront store in Red Hook. The City Planning Commission approved an application by Ikea Property, Inc., for the development of a 346,000-square-foot furniture store and three ancillary buildings on a 22-acre site along the Red Hook, Brooklyn waterfront. The store, Ikea’s first in New York City, will be its largest store in the United States. The Commission also approved 70,000 sq.ft. of retail and restaurant space and a … <Read More>