Developer affected by rezoning claimed substantial work. In early 2010, Scott Minuta obtained a permit to demolish two low-rise buildings at 35-16 Astoria Boulevard in Astoria, Queens. On May 10, 2010, Minuta obtained a building permit to develop a six-story mixed-use building on the site. Two weeks later the City Council approved the 238-block Astoria Rezoning Plan, which replaced the site’s R6 zoning with an R6B district. 7 CityLand 71 (June 15, 2010). The rezoning … <Read More>
Board of Standards & Appeals
Bronx project grandfathered after Court remand
- 183 East Broadway. Image: CityLand.
BSA granted four-year extension to complete 63-unit building after City conceded that developer could correct noncompliant plans. In May 2004, Buildings issued developer GRA V LLC excavation and foundation permits for a 63-unit residential building at 3329 Giles Place in the Van Cortlandt Village section of the Bronx. GRA V began excavating the site and pouring the foundation for its proposed six-story building. In September 2004, before GRA V completed … <Read More>
Variance for 6-story project in place of sliver building
Developer sought variance after Buildings revoked permit for twelvestory project. Wai Sun Realty obtained a permit to build a twelvestory, mixed-use building on a narrow through-block lot at 183 East Broadway in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The bottleneck-shaped lot has approximately 26 feet of frontage along East Broadway and 44 feet of frontage along Henry Street. The project site is zoned R7-2 with a partial C1-5 commercial overlay.
Wai Sun demolished a five-story building to … <Read More>
Flushing’s RKO Keith’s theater redevelopment OK’d
- Redevelopment plan for the RKO Keith’sTheater at 135-35 Northern Boulevard. Image: Courtesy of Studio V Architecture.
Developer sought to amend previously issued variance for seventeenstory project by increasing number of apartments and parking spaces. In December 2005, BSA granted Boymelgreen Developers’ variance request to build a seventeen-story building enveloping and preserving the landmarked interior of the RKO Keith’s Theater at 135-35 Northern Boulevard in Flushing, Queens. The project would have provided 200 condominiums, a … <Read More>
Variances granted for HPD project in Borough Park
- Image: Courtesy of Bricolage Designs
- Image: Courtesy of Bricolage Designs
HPD claimed site’s former railway use complicated development of seventeen apartment buildings. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development selected the Southern Brooklyn Community Organization to build seventeen, four-story affordable housing buildings on two narrow City-owned parcels on 37th Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The block-long parcels are separated by 13th Avenue and were once occupied by the South Brooklyn Railroad and the elevated BMT … <Read More>
BSA denies challenge to twelve-story homeless shelter
Community group argued that proposed homeless shelter did not qualify as a hotel under the zoning resolution. Buildings in 2010 issued the Bowery Residents’ Committee a permit to convert a twelve-story factory building at 127 West 25th Street in Chelsea to a homeless shelter and offices. BRC planned to create a 32-bed chemical dependency crisis center, a 96-bed reception center for the homeless, a 200-bed homeless shelter, and two outpatient counseling programs serving up