Fire-damaged building in historic SoHo to be restored and increased in height. Morty Lipkis, owner of 44 Mercer Street, a 2,480-square-foot lot in SoHo, proposed to replace a vacant fire-damaged building zoned for manufacturing with a 102-foot tall, seven-story mixed-use building. The proposed building would serve residential and retail uses with 12,549- square-feet of floor space, requiring variances for use and rear yard size. The site’s current two-story structure abuts a rear building and offers … <Read More>
SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District
City Must Pay to Reinstall SoHo Art
Court declares art organization, not building owner, owns artwork on exterior wall of SoHo historic district building. In September 2004, Judge Deborah A. Batts allowed the Board of Managers of Soho International Arts Condominium to proceed with its Fifth Amendment takings claim against the City, pending an inquiry as to who owned the well-known minimalist sculpture by artist Forrest Myers that had been attached to 599 Broadway since 1973. (See CityLand’s past coverage here.)… <Read More>
SoHo Loft to be converted to live-work spaces
Developer abandoned plan to convert loft to residential. 96 Springs LLC sought a special permit to allow ground floor retail use and 14 residential units at 96 Spring Street, an eight-story, 53,700-square-foot loft located on the corner of Spring and Mercer Streets in a manufacturing zone within the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. Currently the building contains a mix of commercial uses, with the fourth and fifth floors vacant and the ground floor occupied by a … <Read More>
SoHo residential building approved
Eighty residential units, ground-floor retail and parking garage to replace SoHo parking lot. The developer Albert Laboz sought Landmarks approval for the construction of a nine-story, 110 ft. metal and glass building at 311 West Broadway in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District on a through-block lot with frontage on both Wooster Street and West Broadway. The building, designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects to replace the existing at-grade parking lot, included eight stories along … <Read More>
SoHo ad must come down
Vinyl wall advertisement installed without approval. In response to a June 2, 2004 warning letter, the owner of 600 Broadway, an 1883 loft building located in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, sought to legalize the installation of a Steve Madden vinyl wall advertisement installed on the buildings’ north wall without Landmarks’ approval. Landmarks issued permits to 600 Broadway in the past for wall advertisements including a 47’ x 55’ sign at the east end of … <Read More>
Owner gets third change to approval
Residential building to be built at Wooster and Wes t Broadway. Arun Bhatia sought a third amendment to the design approved by a 1 990 Landmarks permit, which allowed the new construction on one of the few undeveloped sites in SoHo of a six-story hotel with a two story penthouse. The site, 137- 139 Wooster Street, is a block-through lot between Prince and West Houston and is within the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. The application … <Read More>