Uncertainty over the future of the 421-a tax abatement is driving developers to focus on condos and commercial projects, because rentals are harder to finance without the tax break.
Yesterday’s crop of filings brought yet another application for a small commercial building in Lower Manhattan. Milwaukee restaurateur and former SoHo bar owner Karl Kopp filed plans for a seven-story retail project at 277 Mott Street, between Houston and Prince streets in NoLIta.
Unlike the other projects we’ve seen so far, this building will have retail on every floor, including the cellar. The plans don’t include any office space. There will also be a roof deck on the top floor and a planter terrace in front of the first-floor entrance.
Toshiko Mori Architect, based nearby on Lafayette Street, will handle the design.
The 21-foot-wide lot has been vacant since the early 90s, when the city demolished a small tenement building. The previous owner laid down a foundation and installed steel bracing for a small mixed-use project that never materialized. Permits were first filed back in 2006 for a seven-story, three-unit building, but it doesn’t look like work ever advanced past the foundation. The zoning here allows residential, commercial, or mixed-use development.
Kopp used to own Bar 89, which shut its doors on Mercer Street in 2013. He also operates two restaurants in Milwaukee – Elsa’s on the Park and Kopp’s Frozen Custard – and AZ/88, a bar in Scottsdale. His business address matches that of Elsa’s.
He purchased the 1,900-square-foot plot for an undisclosed amount in 2003.
Recently, we’ve noticed a few other commercial buildings in the works in this high-priced part of the city. Ironstate filed plans for a nine-story office building on Lafayette Street in NoHo last month, and Morris Adjmi is designing a seven-story office project on Wooster Street in SoHo.
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Karl Kopp is the current and past owner of this property. He planned on building a 7 story luxury residential building on this lot. He received approval from DOB to fill the whole lot, front to back with his Dillar// Scofido designed building. This project came to a screeching halt when the buildings at 275, 273 and 279 Mott Street were threatened with collapsing due to his shoddy excavation and construction practices. The DOB mandated that Mr. Kopp install the metal beams to support the two buildings on either side of his construction zone. What Little Italy needs is a multi storied mall! Especially when so many of the store fronts are empty or turn over every six months.