Effort to landmark site of planned 40-story NoMad tower shot down

Landmarks Preservation Commission shot down an effort by elected officials and preservationists to landmark a building in NoMad that Cottonwood Management plans to tear down and replace with a 40-story condominium tower.

State Senators Brad Hoylman and Liz Krueger last month wrote to Landmarks and asked it to consider landmarking the Kaskel & Kaskel Building at 316 Fifth Avenue, which Cottonwood bought in 2016 for $19.3 million.

Commission chair Meenakshi Srinivasan replied that Landmarks had considered the building ineligible for landmarking in three previous studies, according to a written response the elected officials shared with Curbed.

“[T]he agency determines eligibility for individual landmark designation based on long established standards, and given the above considerations we have determined that 316 Fifth Avenue does not rise to the level of an individual landmark,” she wrote.

Srinivasan said that the LPC had identified prominent changes to the building’s roofline, extensive changes on the ground floor and the removal of a historic cornice on two facades as reasons for denying landmarks protection.

In July, Cottonwood filed plans with the Department of Buildings for the property, which is set to hold 27 units and span 59,240 square feet. [Curbed] – Rich Bockmann