A Tribeca developer plans to build a new eight-story residential condo with ground floor retail space on the vacant triangle bounded by Greenwich, Watts and Canal Sts.
The architect, Shael Shapiro, and land use attorney, Jay Segal, representing the owner, Fabian Friedland, told the Community Board 1 Tribeca committee on Oct. 2 that the project would require a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals because current zoning does not allow new residential buildings.
The preliminary concept plan calls for a total of 48,000 sq. feet and about 19 apartments in a project built to a floor to area ratio of six, or eight stories. Current zoning allows new commercial buildings with a F.A.R. of five, which would allow a six-story building on the site.
“In general we support residential development,” Albert Capsouto, chairperson of the committee, said last week, “but we don’t support increases in bulk.” Marc Ameruso, a Tribeca committee member who lives across the street from the site, said, “We’re glad to see something built on the lot to replace the derelict buildings there and we appreciate getting information early, but we’re concerned about the height of the project.”
A two-story former auto repair garage and two other buildings, one four stories and the other three stories will be leveled to make way for the project.
“It’s a unique site. There’s water at the seven-foot level – probably the old canal on Canal St.,” Shapiro said last week. The east-bound tube of the Holland Tunnel also underlies the site and rises to the surface on Canal St. three blocks away. There is no design yet for the building and the B.S.A. variance application has not yet been filed, Segal and Shapiro said.
