Diagram shows proposed additions for 51 White Street. Image Credit: NYC CPC

Building next to unique synagogue will have two additional stories and mezzanine. On November 14, 2018, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing for a special permit application for 51 White Street in Tribeca, Manhattan. The special permit would allow for the addition of two stories to the top of the building and the construction of a mezzanine between the first and second floor. The building has been vacant since 2016 but formerly had a ground floor retail tenant and twelve residential apartments on the other floors. (read more…)

329 Greenwich Street in Manhattan. Image Credit: CityLaw.

Loft tenant filed a petition to annul a New York City Loft Board’s amended final determination that the fourth floor consisted of two separate and distinct apartment units, claiming he was the occupant of the entire floor. SMC Associates, the owner of a loft at 329 Greenwich Street, filed plans to legalize two units on the fourth floor of the building. Longtime tenant Stephen Grant challenged the legalization plan, claiming that the space on the fourth floor was actually only one unit, not two. (read more…)

View of Worth Street from New York Law School. Image credit: CityLand

New plan subjects crane operators to additional safety regulations and increased fines for non-compliance.  On February 7, 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a four-prong safety plan to be taken by large crane operators.  The new set of safety measures arose in response to a fatal crane collapse incident, which occurred on February 5, 2016 in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan.

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Advocacy group selects areas in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island as meriting preservation attention in 2013. The Historic Districts Council announced its “Six to Celebrate” list of preservation priorities on January 3, 2013. The areas identified by HDC consist of the Bronx Parks System, Manhattan’s East Village/Lower East Side and Tribeca neighborhoods, Brooklyn’s Greenpoint and Sunset Park neighborhoods, and Harrison Street in Staten Island.

The six areas were chosen from applications submitted by neighborhood groups around the city. The selected preservation targets will be commemorated at an event held by HDC on January 29, 2013. (read more…)

177 West Broadway

Early 1800s rowhouse on West Broadway had undergone extensive ground-floor reconstruction and gained an additional floor. On June 26, 2012, Landmarks declined to designate a three-story Federal-style rowhouse at 177 West Broadway in Tribeca as an individual landmark. The rowhouse was built circa 1802 as a two-story building. It is one of the neighborhood’s earliest structures, and one of the few remaining Federal-style buildings in Manhattan. The building served as private residence in its early years and, according to Landmarks, also served as a brothel for a period of time. The building is currently occupied by a ground-floor pet store and actor Harvey Keitel’s production company. The building retains its original Flemish-bond brick and splayed lintels at the second floor. The existing third floor of the building was added in the mid-1800s, and the ground-floor infill is non-historic after undergoing extensive alterations.

At Landmarks’s hearing in June 2010, Attorney Valerie Campbell, representing Shiloh Company LLC, which owns the building, opposed designation. Campbell argued that the heavily altered building did not merit designation because it retains only a “single one-story swath of original brick,” and lacks many of the features commonly associated with the Federal style.

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Developer reduced tower by 60 feet and increased community facilities. The City Council approved, without additional changes, the City Planning Commission’s resolutions adopted on July 28, 2004 to allow construction of a 29-story mixed-use building at 200 Chambers Street. The Council’s action completes the designation of the site as an Urban Development Action Area, allows the transfer of City-owned land to the City’s Economic Development Corporation, and approves a special permit to modify height and setback. In the course of the ULURP process, the developer reduced the height of the tower from 360 ft. to 300 ft., eliminated an urban plaza, committed 10,000 sq.ft. of a 40,000-square-foot community facility space to the adjacent P.S. 234, and reduced the project’s size.

The proposed development raised concerns because of the site’s history, the potential shadows on Tribeca’s Washington Market Park, and the impact of new residents on the already overcrowded P.S. 234. The site, part of an expired Urban Renewal Area Plan, had a history of failed development proposals, leaving it one of only two remaining undeveloped sites in the area. (read more…)