Air Rights Shuffle on Broad Street
| Posted: | 27/Apr/2007 22:00:00 |
| Author: | Gromco |
According to the 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 (25 Broad at 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 (15 William)
would have hidden it from public view, anyway.
- The "air rights" released by the demolition will be
transferred to 45 Broad, 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, they
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
be able to enforce the restoration deal once Swig's demolition application was approved.
Even though the plan was approved, both Community Board 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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