Rendering of proposed building to be built on Teleport Drive, Staten Island. Image Credit: Nicotra Group LLC.

Approval will facilitate the construction of an industrial park with a bank, restaurant, and commercial and medical offices. On February 22, 2017, the City Planning Commission approved an application from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to dispose of city-owned property in the Staten Island Industrial Park. The 8.5-acre lot in question is a largely wooded and undeveloped area. The site does contain two small wetlands totaling 1.5 acres, and is adjacent to the Staten Island Boys Football field and two three-story buildings already owned by the developer.

The Industrial Park is a 415-acre wooded and developed area managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey under a lease. The area had been used for a satellite communications center in the 1980s and 1990s. The demand for such services diminished, however, in the 2000s and the area has been sold off piecemeal to private owners for development.

The application would allow the Administrative Services to sell the lot to the New York City Land Development Corporation, which would in turn sell the land to the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which would in turn sell the land to a developer. The developer, Corporate Commons Three LLC, a subsidiary of the Nicotra Group LLC, had previously submitted a proposal to the Economic Development Corporation proposing the construction of commercial office space, a bank, a restaurant, and medical offices.

Image Credit: Nicotra Group LLC.

The development would be a six-story concrete and glass building totaling 240,000 square feet. The developer would preserve 1.6 acres of wetland. A central common area will be created between the existing two buildings owned by the developer and the third. The developer is also proposing the creation of 885 parking spaces: 423 spaces within an open parking lot and 450 space within a parking deck on-site.

The developer also intends to create a publicly accessible and landscaped plaza with a circular fountain plaza and a pedestrian promenade. The restaurant would donate 100 percent of its proceeds to Staten Island charities. There is also a possibility that the building would include a rooftop farm.

Staten Island Community Board 2 and the Borough President both recommended approval of the application. In its report, the Commission noted that the project could create 929 new jobs in the West Shore of Staten Island and improve an underutilized property that has been vacant since the 1980s.

 CPC: Teleport Site A, Staten Island (C 170156 PPR) (Feb. 22, 2017).

By: Jonathon Sizemore (Jonathon is the CityLaw Fellow and a New York Law School Graduate, Class of 2016).