Community Board 2 last Thursday issued a sweeping resolution against a variance application for a new 14-story, luxury residential building at 32-40 Bond St. in Noho, to be developed by Richard Born and hotelier Ian Schrager.
The developers seek to get a zoning variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals to build a residential building with 69 apartments on the site of an open-air parking lot. The site is zoned for manufacturing use, as an M1-5B district, though residential occupancy is allowed in existing buildings. Surrounding buildings are seven to nine stories tall. The board said it was concerned about the loss of parking spaces and the fact that the new building is not an arts-related project and that new units should be at least 1,200 sq. ft.
Shelly Friedman, attorney for the developers, praised the board’s resolution for being “articulate and well thought-out” and said they hope to address some of the concerns. Friedman said they need the additional height in order to get good views and that the bottom seven floors were “pretty much dead space” because of surrounding buildings. The developers want to get a floor-area ratio for the site of 7.6, down from their original plan for an F.A.R. of 8.57. But David Reck, chairperson of the board’s zoning committee, said that they won’t accept anything more than 5 F.A.R. Subsequently, Freidman said that if the board supports the application, the developers will support the idea of designating that area of Noho as a historic district.
