Famous Formaggio Pizzeria. Image credit: Google Maps.
A building developed cracks in its foundation allegedly caused by pile driving associated with an adjacent construction project. Procida Construction Corp., a general contractor, undertook construction of a new building at 322 West 231st Street in the Bronx adjacent to Famous Formaggio Pizzeria’s building located at 300-318 West 231st Street. During pile driving an enlarged crack appeared in the foundation of Famous Formaggio’s building. Procida halted the pile driving and established a stability plan and remedial measures. (more…)
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. The new zoning restricted new building heights to 80 ft., making the proposed hotel 111 ft. over the new height limit. Without the full foundation completed, Buildings issued a stop-work order.
Applying to BSA, D.A.B. argued that, despite having only 63 percent of the foundation complete, the work represented the most difficult and time-consuming portion of the construction. This included all 28 H-beams, 100 timber legs and all of the rebar and poured concrete needed to complete the elevator pit floors and walls. (more…)
Board ruled that owner made substantial progress on foundation prior to rezoning. In May 2008, Buildings issued the owner of 219-05 North Conduit Boulevard a permit to construct a three-story, 65-room transient hotel in the Laurelton section of Queens. The proposed building complied with the zoning requirements at the time. On September 4, 2008, the City Council approved a rezoning in Laurelton, 5 CityLand 121 (Sept. 15, 2008), which rezoned the owner’s property from C2-2/R3-2 to C1-1/R3X. The new district did not permit transient hotels. Since the building’s foundation had not been completed at the time of the rezoning, the permit lapsed and Buildings issued a stop-work order.
The owner sought approval from BSA to complete construction under a claim of vested rights, arguing that it had completed excavation and that substantial progress had been made on the foundation before Council approved the rezoning. In support of its claim, the owner submitted affidavits from the construction manager and architect, a certified Pile Identification Plan and Pile Driving Reports, and financial documents demonstrating that the owner had incurred approximately 65 percent of the total estimated foundation cost prior to the rezoning. (more…)
Developer addresses noise concerns for construction near downtown elementary school. An 815,000- square-foot residential/retail project, including a 388-foot tower to front West Street in lower Manhattan, obtained City Council approval on September 28, 2005.
The mixed-use project, to be constructed on a site bounded by West, Warren, Greenwich and Murray Streets, required special permits to vary height, setback, and rear yard requirements, and to construct a 400-space parking garage. 2 CityLand 118 (Sept. 15, 2005).
At the September 20, 2005 hearing before the Council’s Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions and Concessions, the Economic Development Corporation and developer Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc. stressed that the building would not maximize its FAR potential and included construction of a Community Youth Center at 200 Chambers Street. The EDC and Minskoff also raised the community’s recommendation that construction noise be kept below 45 decibels in order to avoid disturbances to nearby P.S. 234 elementary school. The developer expressed that the recommendation was too strict because ambient noise in that neighborhood has been measured at 70 decibels. (more…)
Manufacturing and office use found infeasible on triangular-shaped lot adjacent to Holland Tunnel. The owner of 500 Canal Street, Greenwich Triangle NU, sought a variance to build a 49,060 squarefoot, eight-story residential building with ground floor retail in a Tribeca manufacturing zoning district. The 8,000 square-foot, triangular-shaped lot fronts Canal, Greenwich and Watt Streets directly adjacent to the Holland Tunnel. The site is partially developed with abandoned one and three-story buildings.
The owner argued that as-of-right office and manufacturing uses were economically infeasible due to the site’s location and its three exposed street frontages. High construction costs were anticipated, the owner represented, because the Port Authority prohibited pile driving on the lot due to the site’s adjacency to the Holland Tunnel. Costs further increased because a development on the lots would require three separate facades, increasing material costs and construction time. Further, office and manufacturing users would find the triangular- shaped floor plates unusable and undesirable. (more…)
