Upper West Side landlord plans to tear down townhouses for new development

Sackman Enterprises, the under-the-radar owner of a number of Manhattan properties, plans to demolish two Upper West Side townhouses to construct a 13-story building on the site, Department of Buildings records show.

The two properties, at 15 And 17 West 96th Street, are four and five stories, respectively, and contain 10 rental units each, StreetEasy shows.

Jamie Hefelfinger, the CEO of Sackman, filed an application Tuesday for a DOB demolition permit; a plan filed in June of last year and approved in November asked to build a 13-story apartment building on the two plots.

No one answered the phone at Sackman’s office, nor responded to an email by press time. The developer and landlord owns more than 20 properties in the area, Including 200 West 78th Street and 34 West 76th Street.

An LLC listing the same address as Sackman bought 15 West 96th for $3.83 million and 17 West 96th for $3.5 million in 2007, city property records show.

While the block, Between Central Park West And Columbus Avenue, has no buildings designated a landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, feathers could be ruffled by the demolition on the relatively quiet street, said Robb Pair, founder of Harlem Lofts, a local development firm that restores brownstones and townhomes in the Harlem area, just north of the Sackman properties.

“I would be angry,” Pair said, explaining his reaction if he were a resident of the block. “But at the end of the day, it’s 96th Street — nobody is protecting it from a beauty standpoint.”

Additional reporting by Adam Pincus