In the age where residential and commercial giants are taking over urban neighborhoods, an NYC tower still under construction may have to demolish 20 floors off its height, due to their revoked building permit.
Upper-west side’s tallest building, 200 Amsterdam Avenue, reached its planned 52 stories height last year while still, construction continued; however, Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry revoked the permit in February, which then was appealed by the building’s developers.
Supreme Court Justice’s decision came after public complaints were made against the developers, and community groups filed a lawsuit claiming that the developers used a zoning loophole to reach its height.
Elizabeth Goldstein, President of Municipal Arts Society (MAS) challenging the construction of 200 Amsterdam, contends that the developers abused the regulation by using a “gerrymandered” 39-sided plot to maximize the height of the 668-foot-tall giant.
“The development is out of scale for what a reasonable citizen would expect to happen in that community based on the zoning resolution and the application of straightforward principles,” continued Goldstein.
The development’s legal representatives, however, disagree. According to Justin Davidson at Curbed, an appeals court is currently in the process to revisit the court’s previous ruling that happened earlier this year.
If the court’s ruling is revoked, 200 Amsterdam – a Joint Venture between SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America – will be the tallest tower standing in Manhattan with 112 luxury residences and panoramic views of Central Park, the Hudson River, and the Midtown skyline.
Skyscrapers and towers are part of New York City’s culture; and while tearing down 20 floors of a nearly-finished building seems bizarre, it’s not totally unprecedented.
Justin Davidson at Curbed writes about a similar case in 1991 in New York, where developers had to demolish 12 illegal floors from a 31-story tower while it was still under construction.
As far as 200 Amsterdam goes, we’ll have to wait and see how the developer’s appeal will turn out.
For more information on Joint Ventures, visit Clopton Capital’s joint venture equity page.
