June 2016

Proposed front of 11-15 East 75th Street

Landmarks Welcomes Revised Mega-Mansion Proposal for 11-15 East 75th Street, Upper East Side

8:00 am on June 15, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass

About two months ago, the Landmarks Preservation Commission heard a proposal to create a mega-mansion out of the rowhouses at 11-15 East 75th Street. The commissioners, and the public, were quite unreceptive to it. On Tuesday, the team representing Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of the mega-yacht Eclipse and the Chelsea Football Club, returned to the LPC and found their revised proposal much more to the commissioners’ liking.

Read More
22 Chapel Street, image via Bing Maps

Permits Filed for 20-Story Tower at 22 Chapel Street, Downtown Brooklyn

7:30 am on June 15, 2016 By Rebecca Baird-Remba

When Robert Moses built the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the 1950s, he pushed the area between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge approaches even further into isolation, hemming it in on all sides with highways. But OTL Enterprises managed to snag a large and favorably zoned parcel at 22 Chapel Street, just off Flatbush Avenue Extension. Now they’ve filed plans to erect a 20-story, mixed-use building on the lot, which is bounded on the other two sides by Cathedral Place and Jay Street.

Read More
Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava

City Orders Demolition of Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava’s Burnt Remains

7:00 am on June 15, 2016 By Reid Wilson

As May came to an end, the New York City Fire Department was investigating the fire that gutted the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, an individual landmark at 15 West 25th Street in the Flatiron District. Authorities and engineers were studying the structural integrity of the remains, and have now declared the church “too unstable to be left standing,” the New York Post reported. That means the main house of worship will be demolished. The rectory portion of the cathedral, which was unscathed during the fire, currently also has Landmarks protection, which should mean it won’t be demolished with the main structure. The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has the option to de-designate the property, too, but we think, at the very least, the LPC will want to keep the rectory a landmark. The Executive Board of St. Sava will now decide if they will rebuild on the property or relocate. The site has 244,450 square feet of mixed-use development rights, minus the usable square-footage of the rectory.

Read More
305 Calyer Street, image via Google Maps

Permits Filed: Six-Story Auto Repair at 305 Calyer Street, Greenpoint

6:30 am on June 15, 2016 By Rebecca Baird-Remba

Much of North Brooklyn’s manufacturing zone has become prime real estate for hotel developers, but the blocks where eastern Greenpoint bleeds into Williamsburg have remained stubbornly industrial, filled with factories, building supply companies, and the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Now, we’ve spotted plans to build a commercial project that will fit in perfectly in a heavy industrial zone.

Read More