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New York

Al Laboz proposes first project to use controversial SoHo rezoning

Developer looks to convert historic commercial building into apartments

United American Land's Al Laboz with rendering of 277 Canal Street
United American Land's Al Laboz with rendering of 277 Canal Street (United American Land, Getty)
By
Jun 15, 2023, 7:00 AM

Bill de Blasio’s contentious Soho upzoning may be reaping a reward two years after his mayoral exit.

Al Laboz’s United American Land is presenting SoHo’s first affordable housing project under the new zoning Thursday to Community District 2’s Landmarks Committee.

The project, designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, would add 10 stories to the three-story Oltarsh Building at 277 Canal Street, transforming the commercial space into 100 apartments. A quarter of those units will be designated affordable, as required by the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law.

The proposal promises to maintain the three-story facade at the building’s base and replicate its appearance upwards in order to blend in with the historic neighborhood’s aesthetic.

It’s not Laboz’s first stab at rehabbing a building in the area.

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The developer has been awarded several prizes from the New York Landmarks Conservancy for restoring centuries-old buildings in the Cast Iron District. Those projects included a five-year restoration on the facade of 55 Reade Street and a complete rehab of the three-story residences at 321 and 323 Canal Street.

Laboz’s latest SoHo development site sits at the intersection of Canal and Broadway and is above an opening into New York’s underground. New renderings suggest that the corridor into the N, Q, R, W Canal Street Station could also be renovated.

United American Land has not responded to a request for comment. 

Should the proposal pass muster with the Landmarks Preservation Commission and come to fruition, it will mark a new chapter for a neighborhood that hadn’t seen a change to its exclusive zoning in more than half a century.

The controversial rezoning initiative — the SoHo/NoHo Neighborhood Plan, which aimed to add 3,500 affordable units — was one of de Blasio’s last hurrahs in the final months of his term, and an effort to cement a legacy of creating more affordable housing in one of the nation’s most expensive cities.

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United American LandAl Laboz