Greenberg Traurig’s Nick Hockens testifying on behalf of the applicant before the BSA on March 8, 2016. Image credit: BSA

The transferring property was granted a variance 35 years ago, but the value of the development rights has since sky-rocketed. On March 8, 2016, the Board of Standards and Appeals unanimously voted to grant Charlton Cooperative Corporation’s request for a variance to transfer unused development rights from the applicant’s property, located at 112 Charlton Street, to an adjacent property, located at 108 Charlton Street, in Manhattan’s Special Hudson Square District. Because the site from which the unused development rights would be transferred had previously received a variance, the development rights cannot be transferred without Board approval.

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Moshe Friedman testifying before the Board of Standards and Appeals. Image credit: BSA

The variance permits the construction of a new floor to accommodate the School’s programmatic needs. On March 22, 2016, the Board of Standards and Appeals conditionally approved a variance to construct an additional floor onto the Bais Yaakov D’ Chasidei Gur religious school, located at 1975 51st Street in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The four-story building will be expanded into a five-story building to accommodate the School’s existing students and anticipated increase in enrollment.

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160 Imlay Street, Brooklyn (circa 2006)

BSA, which had granted variance to developer in 2003, grants time extension due to five-year court battle. In 2003, the Board of Standards & Appeals granted a use variance to 160 Imlay Street Real Estate LLC to allow for the residential conversion of a six-story warehouse at 160 Imlay Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. 160 Imlay Street LLC had claimed that it could not earn a reasonable rate of return with a complying use under the site’s M2-1 manufacturing zoning designation. The Red Hook-Gowanus Chamber of Commerce filed an article 78 petition challenging the variance. The Chamber, however, failed to name 160 Imlay Street LLC in the petition, and the City asked the State Supreme Court to dismiss the proceeding. The issue was appealed up to the Court of Appeals, which sent the case back to the Supreme Court. (read CityLand’s coverage here).

Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Lewis ruled that the lawsuit could continue without 160 Imlay Street LLC as a named party, and then vacated the variance. Justice Lewis returned the matter to BSA to determine whether 160 Imlay Street (read more…)