4302 4th Avenue

City Now Planning Public School Redevelopment at Landmarked Police Station, 4302 Fourth Avenue, Sunset Park

11:00 am on June 15, 2016 By Reid Wilson

In January, developer Yosef Streicher disclosed preliminary plans to redevelop the long-vacant, three-story 68th Police Precinct Station House and Stable, an individual landmark at 4302 Fourth Avenue, located on the corner of 43rd Street in Sunset Park. The plan was for some sort of community facility, a café, and roughly 10 residential units. The New York City School Construction Authority (SCA) has since struck a deal with the developer to transform the property into an over 300-student public school, the Brooklyn Paper reported, which means the original plans are out the window. The SCA also disclosed the possibility and likelihood that the buildings could be demolished. Since the structures are an individual landmarks, that means the Landmarks Preservation Commission would have to approve its demolition (a highly unlikely event). The city could automatically demolish the landmark if the structures are deemed hazardous.

Read More
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