Air Rights Shuffle on Broad Street

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Posted 27/Apr/2007 22:00:00 by Slavito in The Exchange, 45 Broad Street, William Beaver House, Swig Equities, Financial District

According to a report published today in Downtown Express, a recently approved unusual exchange of air rights, predicated on de-landmarking the building at 25 Broad street, will allow neighboring 45 Broad to "grow" 12 extra floors.

Basically, the deal will work as follows:

25 Broad Street (The Exchange) will be de-landmarked (the landmark status was given to the building in 2001)
Following that, most floors of its rear wing will be demolished. This will actually not affect the appearance all that much, considering that another building under contruction at 15 William street (William Beaver House) would have hidden it from public view, anyway.
The "air rights" released by the demolition will be transferred to 45 Broad Street, a 35-story structure, allowing that building to add 12 extra floors. Thus, 45 Broad will become a 47-floor building.

To sweeten the deal, the properties' owner, Swig Equities, made some restoration promises (for example, it pledged to fully restore the rest of 25 Broad 's exterior), although some at the L.P.C. expressed hesitation about how the Commission would enforce the restoration deal once Swig’s demolition application was approved.

Even though the plan was approved, both Community Board No. 1 and the Landmark Preservation Commission expressed hope that this would not set a precedent allowing other building owners to perform similar manipulations with the air-rights of their buildings.

Sources and Links

Owner Asks to Demolish Part of Landmark (Tribeca Tribune, March 30 2007)
Out of sight, out of landmark protection (Downtown Express, April 27 2007)

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Air Rights Shuffle on Broad Street

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