Rendering of Chelsea Market’s proposed Tenth Avenue addition. Courtesy of Jamestown Properties and Studios

Borough president and local community board oppose current plan to build additions to the eastern and western sides of block-long Chelsea Market. On July 25, 2012, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on Jamestown Properties’ expansion plan for Chelsea Market at 75 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. The Market is a complex of 18 different buildings occupying the entire block bounded by West 14th and West 15th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues and was formerly occupied by Nabisco. A portion of the High Line elevated park runs through the Market’s western edge on Tenth Avenue. The Market provides more than 1.1 million sq.ft. of space for food-related and non-food-related retail and wholesale businesses, along with media and technology companies.

Jamestown’s initial proposal included building a 240,000-square-foot, nine-story office addition on the Tenth Avenue side of the Market, and a 90,000-square-foot, 11-story hotel addition on the Ninth Avenue side of the Market. The nine-story addition on Tenth Avenue would increase the Market’s height from 84 feet to 226 feet. The 11-story addition on Ninth Avenue would increase the tallest portion of that side of the Market from 51 feet to 160 feet. Jamestown did not propose any new development for the mid-block.

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Developer plans to convert West Chelsea warehouse to a pre-K though 12 private school. On October 19, 2011, the City Planning Commission approved Avenues World Holdings LLC’s proposal to convert a ten-story warehouse into a 1,635- seat private K-12 school, known as Avenues: The World School, in West Chelsea. The Cass Gilbert-designed building occupies the western side of Tenth Avenue between West 25th and West 26th Streets, and is within Avthe boundaries of the Special West Chelsea District and the West Chelsea Historic District. The warehouse is across the street from the Elliot- Chelsea Houses and the High Line runs along its western facade.

Avenues World Holdings’ proposal includes adding a rooftop gym and renovating the recessed loading bay docks lining the building’s ground floor along Tenth Avenue. Avenues World Holdings would open the loading bays by removing overhead security doors to create two colonnades and increase circulation space for students. To accommodate the gym’s 25-foot high ceiling, Avenues World Holdings would need to increase the building’s height to 144 feet.  (read more…)

Private developer will purchase and adaptively reuse portion of General Theological Seminary and construct a new residential building. On July 19, 2011, Landmarks approved the Brodsky Organization’s plan to develop a six-story residential building on a site occupied by a tennis court within the General Theological Seminary’s campus at 400 West 21st Street in the Chelsea Historic District. The Seminary’s campus comprises one full block between West 20th and West 21st Streets, and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. Brodsky’s proposal also includes converting the adjacent West Building and three brick townhouses used as faculty housing into residential uses.

In an attempt to address its financial problems, the Seminary in 2006 first partnered with Brodsky to replace a dilapidated four-story building at the corner of West 21st Street and Ninth Avenue.   (read more…)

Proposal would permit as-of-right residential development along east side of Eleventh Avenue. On June 7, 2011, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved the Department of City Planning and Manhattan Community Board 4’s proposed West Clinton Rezoning in Clinton, Manhattan. The eighteen-block rezoning area is generally bounded by West 55th Street to the north, West 43rd Street to the south, portions of the blocks between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues to the east, and Twelfth Avenue to the west.

The area is zoned for manufacturing and contains a mix of uses including warehouses, car dealerships and repair shops, commercial loft buildings, utility facilities, and a handful of tenement-style apartment buildings. Planning and CB 4 requested the rezoning and a zoning text amendment to provide residential development opportunities and encourage compatible manufacturing development. (read more…)

City can now negotiate to acquire northern section of High Line in order to complete 1.45-mile elevated park. On July 29, 2010, the City Council approved a proposal by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation to acquire the remaining portion of the High Line elevated rail line and associated easements. This section, currently owned by CSX Corporation, begins at West 30th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues and runs west before turning north and terminating at West 34th Street. It also includes the “spur,” which extends east off the main structure at West 30th Street and terminates above the intersection of Tenth Avenue and West 30th Street. The easements associated with the structure generally extend below and above the High Line and include property owned by the MTA and the Convention Center Development Corporation. (read more…)

Commissioners found additions’ visibility appropriate for Chelsea and the nearby High Line. On February 9, 2010, Landmarks approved 513 West 26th Street LLC’s proposal to construct rooftop additions on three, conjoined former factory buildings at 515 through 521 West 26th Street in the West Chelsea Historic District. The brick factory buildings, built between 1911 and 1921, vary in height from nine to three stories.

The applicant’s original proposal, presented on October 20, 2009, included three rectangular additions partially concealed by raised parapets and set back ten feet from the front facade and flush with the rear facade. As originally proposed, the additions featured translucent, glazed curtain walls of fritted glass which would be visible from several vantage points, including the High Line.

Shea Murdock, from Murdock Young Architects, argued that visible additions were appropriate for the location because there would be dialogue between the activity inside the glass structures and the activity on the High Line. (read more…)