From left: Howard Goldman, a land use attorney who represented Bay People, Lamis Deek, an attorney for the developers and the Sheepshead Bay site

A group of Sheepshead Bay residents who claim that a planned mosque is using a zoning loophole to skirt parking requirements lost their latest attempt to halt the controversial project, after the Board of Standards and Appeals unanimously rejected their claims today.

Though it hasn’t attracted as much attention as Park 51, the Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan, the mosque planned for 2812 Voorhies Avenue, on a residential block between East 28th and East 29th streets, has inspired protests, a lawsuit and challenges before the Department of Buildings.
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The owners of a popular Bayside, Queens Lucille Roberts fitness center, who have been operating for nearly two decades in their Bell Boulevard location despite a zoning regulation that forbids them from doing so, are heading to a meeting of Community Board 11 tonight to lobby for a rezoning proposal that would permit the gym to exist as-of-right. According to the Daily News, the area was down-zoned in the mid-1990s to C1-2, a designation that allows small retail and service businesses on the commercial stretch and doesn’t allow special permitting for a fitness center to dodge the rules. The Lucille Roberts owners are seeking a C2-2 designation for the entire stretch, but although the gym is popular with local residents, Community Board 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece noted that “the idea of upzoning the area makes some people uneasy.” [more]

Following community outcry, the Board of Standards and Appeals ruled today to put the fate of a sliver building at 330 West 86th Street in the hands of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, according to Westside Independent, thus creating another roadblock for the project. HPD has opposed the demolition of the existing five-story rental building. The decision comes three months after BSA ruled that Midtown-based Darkhorse Development could build a 17-story building on the 20-foot wide plot between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue. That ruling said the city’s Department of Buildings could not restrict the height of the proposed building to just a few stories. Darkhorse conceived of the project a decade ago and its plans have been stymied due to years of litigation by city agencies. [Westside Independent]

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Dutch Kills homeowners are heading to court to stop construction of a
nine-story hotel on a residential block at 39-35 27th Street. The Long
Island City residents are suing developer Steven Bahar and the city
agencies that granted him permission to build the hotel, even after he
missed a zoning deadline. “We’re not against development,” Dutch Kills
Advocacy League President Barbara Lorinz told the Daily News. “We just
don’t want or need these big high-rises next to one-, two-, and
three-family homes.” Lorinz is one of the plaintiffs in the June 25
lawsuit filed against the developer, the Board of Standards and Appeals
and other city agencies. The suit claims the BSA should not have given
Bahar permission to build the hotel because he failed to finish pouring
its foundation before the zoning height restriction was changed in
October 2008. Meanwhile, the Dutch Kills Advocacy League met with an
urban planner yesterday to discuss ways to preserve the community,
which has seen an influx of hotels popping up in recent years. [NYDN]

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From left: Robert Ricciardelli, the current building at 330 West 86th Street and a rendering for the site

A sliver condominium project dreamed up a decade ago for the Upper West Side but stymied through years of litigation by city agencies cleared what could be its final hurdle last month when a review ruled in favor of the developer.

The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals decided in favor of Midtown-based Darkhorse Development April 20, removing a barrier to a 17-story building on a 20-foot wide plot at 330 West 86th Street, between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.

The ruling says the city’s Department of Buildings cannot restrict the height of the proposed four-unit building to just a few stories. [more]

80 Metropolitan

New Williamsburg condominium 80 Metropolitan has been approved for Federal Housing Administration financing, according to a press release sent on behalf of the developer, Steiner NYC, which will allow buyers to make down payments as small as 3.5 percent. Meanwhile, the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals approved zoning exemptions that will allow New York University to build its proposed spiritual center at the intersection of Washington Square South, West 3rd Street and Thompson Street. And Metropolitan Realty Associates and its equity partner Angelo Gordon & Co. have received $23.5 million in financing for its 188,500-square-foot mixed-use Garden City development, according to a press release sent today by Metropolitan. Click here for more. TRD [more]

With fewer hotel rooms under construction, hotel developers hope the reduction in new rooms will help to revive the hospitality industry.

The October 2009 STR/TWR/Dodge Construction Pipeline Report noted that the total active U.S. hotel development pipeline includes 4,089 projects comprising 435,265 rooms.

This represents a 32.7 percent decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline — which includes projects in the construction, final planning and planning stages, but not in the pre planning stage — compared to October 2008.

“The number of rooms in construction fell 41.2 percent from the same time last year,” said Duane Vinson, vice president at STR. A number of planned hotels have ground to a halt in Manhattan including the Lower East Side’s 180 Ludlow Street.
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Stalled hotel project 180 Ludlow may soon breathe new life as a residential building, after Community Board 3 last night granted their tentative approval to the proposal laid out by lawyers for developer Serge Hoyda. The 158-unit building would be rent stabilized but would not have a major affordability component, which was a point of contention amongst board members. “There is an affordable housing crisis in this neighborhood,” said Joel Finegold, an affordable housing advocate. “People are being displaced on a massive scale. We’re all familiar with this, and this is an opportunity to create a tremendous number of affordable housing units.” Hoyda’s lawyers said financing for a residential building with an affordability component is not available in the current economic environment, and that instead, in an effort to partially satisfy that need, Hoyda will set aside five apartments in the building as a donation to the community. Other units will be mostly studios priced at $1,200 to $1,300 per month, though there will be some one- and two-bedroom apartments as well. The board will hold a final vote on the proposal next week, and while their approval is not necessary for the project to move forward, it will be instrumental in helping Hoyda obtain approval for the plan from the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals.

The developers of the Fairchild, at 415 Washington Street, did not
follow the Landmarks Preservation Commission-approved blueprint when
constructing the building, Downtown Express reported. The building’s
elevator bulkhead is higher than it should be, the windows are
casements and the cornice is not designed as planned. The building
switched architects midway through the project, with Joseph Pell
Lombardi designing the building and architect Karl Fischer taking over
once construction had begun. After approval from the Landmarks
Preservation Commission, Lombardi changed the designs to incorporate
recommendations from the Board of Standards and Appeals, and he never
went back to the commission for further approval, Fischer said.
Lombardi said Fischer should have gotten the necessary approvals. The
Fairchild is owned by a group of investors that includes actor James
Gandolfini. [more]