Columbia’s plan OK’d: High Court reversed App. Div.

Court of Appeals reversed First Department’s strongly worded opinion. In 2001, Columbia University contacted the City’s Economic Development Corporation in an effort to redevelop West Harlem as part of a campus expansion. Not long after, EDC issued a West Harlem Master Plan that stated that West Harlem could be redeveloped through rezoning. EDC, after it issued the master plan, hired a private firm to examine the neighborhood conditions of West Harlem. The study concluded that … <Read More>


Owner allowed to finish commercial conversion

Owner made substantial progress on rear addition and commercial conversion prior to Sunset Park rezoning. In June 2009, the owner of a four-story residential building at 517 53rd Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn obtained an alteration permit to build a 1,768 sq.ft. addition to the rear of the first floor and cellar in order to convert the two floors to commercial use. Nearly four months later, the City Council approved a rezoning in Sunset Park … <Read More>


Nine-story, partially constructed hotel grandfathered

Developer had not completed hotel when City Council approved rezoning in Dutch Kills. In December 2007, Buildings issued Dutch Kills Partners LLC a permit to build a nine-story, 57-room hotel at 39-35 27th Street in the Dutch Kills section of Queens. The proposed hotel complied with the zoning requirements at the time. In October 2008, the City Council approved the Dutch Kills Rezoning, changing the site’s M1-3D zoning to M1-2/R5B, and putting the proposed 24,713 … <Read More>


Thirteen-story building near Fordham approved

Developer obtained rezoning in order to build a ten-story tower on top of a three-story medical facility currently under construction. On June 29, 2010, the City Council approved Sean Daneshvar’s rezoning proposal to facilitate the development of a thirteen-story building at 621 East Fordham Road in the Belmont section of the Bronx. The site is occupied by a one-story medical facility that Daneshvar is currently enlarging to three stories pursuant to a BSA variance. The … <Read More>


Affordable rental housing OK’d for South Bronx

Developer obtained rezoning in order to build 175-unit, mixed-income, affordable housing project. On June 9, 2010, the City Council approved CBC Associates and the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation’s proposal to rezone an entire block in the Crotona Park East section of the Bronx from C8-3 to R7- 1/C2-4 to facilitate the development of an eight-story, affordable housing project. The developers will construct the building on a 48,992 sq.ft. lot at 1825 Boston Road … <Read More>


Affordable housing approved in West Chelsea

Image: Courtesy GF 55 Partners

The City agreed to build mixed-income housing project prior to 2005 West Chelsea rezoning. On June 29, 2010, the City Council approved, at the request of the New York City Housing Authority, a text amendment that would facilitate the development of a 22-story mixed-income affordable housing project on the site of the Housing Authority-controlled Elliott-Chelsea Houses at the northwest corner of West 25th Street and Ninth Avenue in Chelsea. … <Read More>