New, Eight-story Building Planned for Mid-block Site Along Columbus Avenue

Plan that will replace heavily altered three-story 1894 structure close to being approved; Commissioners asked to see some revisions. On July 19, 2016, Landmarks considered a proposal to redevelop a lot at 466 Columbus Avenue in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District.  The site is occupied by a commercial building constructed in 1894. The building was altered in 1961, and a third story added. Further alterations designed by Gruzen Samton were … <Read More>


Attorney General Settles with Developer for Concealing Prohibited Rent-Controlled Tenant Buyouts

Upper West Side developer must pay $540,000 dollars in settlement costs. On June 6, 2016 New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced reaching a settlement for $540,000 with 165 West 91st Street Holdings, LLC for the loss of two rent-controlled apartments in an Upper West Side building, while it was being converted into a condominium, as a result of prohibited agreements to buy-out tenancy rights. The LLC owns an apartment building at 165 <Read More>


1066-Foot Tower will Abut Landmarked Bank Building

Designated bank lobby will be converted to retail space, while new tower will accommodate residential use. On April 19, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve work impacting the individually designated Dime Savings Bank, as well as its lobby, an interior Landmark. The site lies at 9 Dekalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, on an irregularly shaped block bounded by Dekalb and Flatbush Avenues and Fulton Street. The proposed tower will displace the Williamsburgh <Read More>


HPD Proposes to Implement Extension of Existing 421-a Affordable Housing Tax Abatement Program

HPD brought charges of tenant harassment against an Aimco-owned building in the Upper West Side. Image credit: HPD

The “421-a Extended Affordability Program Rules” would provide a 10 to 15 year extension to eligible buildings enrolled in the program prior to its expiration. On March 14, 2016, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development proposed two agency rules to extend the 421-a real property tax exemption program for those who already had been benefiting from the program prior to its expiration in June 2015. The State authorized HPD to promulgate the new rules … <Read More>


Commission Approves Revised Plan for New Tower Integrated with Federal-Era Landmark House

Applicants altered design so that tower’s facade projections would less severely impose on airspace above historic house. On March 8, 2016 the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved an application by Trinity Place Holdings to develop a new tower adjoining, and internally connected with, the individually landmarked Robert and Anne Dickey House at 67 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan. On the tower’s south facade, cantilevered stepped projections would penetrate the airspace above the 1810 building. The project … <Read More>


Airbnb Opposition Makes for Strange Bedfellows

There are some things you can always count on here in New York: alternate side of the street parking, the subways always running (except when they’re not, like late nights and weekends), the Yankees making the playoffs (except when the Mets do) and landlords and tenants being diametrically opposed. Like Superman and Kryptonite, oil and water, landlords and tenants have always had one thing in common – a mutual distrust of one another.

That is … <Read More>