DOB Grants “Emergency Work” Permit to Controversial UWS Condo Tower

By: Rusty Brooks

During a time where small business are struggling to exist as the city’s tough but understandable, shelter in home orders, money still talks and NYC approved continued work on a controversial condo tower

The city’s Department of Buildings granted permission to the developers of the building at 200 Amsterdam Ave. to do “emergency work”, the NY Post reported.

On April 3, days after Cuomo’s directive to shut down nonessential job sites, there were 800 approved sites throughout the city, according to The City.

“To help slow the spread of COVID-19, the expert staff at the Department of Building have been hard at work implementing the Governor’s Executive Order to halt all nonessential construction in New York City,” said Andrew Rudansky, a spokesman for the DOB, adding after the ban last month the city shut down 35,000 construction sites citywide. “While the vast majority of construction sites are subject to this order, our diligent plan examiners are carefully reviewing and auditing every work application we receive to ensure that any needed essential work and necessary emergency work can still proceed during this shutdown.”

The NY Post reported: In February, a State Supreme Court judge ordered the developers — SJP Properties — to lop 20 stories off the nearly completed 52 story building after community groups fiercely opposed the project.

The NY Post previously reported: A State Supreme court judge ruled that the city must revoke the building permit for the nearly-completed, 55-story condo tower at 200 Amsterdam Ave. — and that its developers must remove a yet-determined number of floors because the structure exceeds zoning limits, according to the nonprofits behind the lawsuit.

“The directive to partially demolish the building is appropriate given the willingness of the developer to ignore every sign that their project was inappropriately scaled for the neighborhood and based on a radical and wildly inaccurate interpretation of the Zoning Resolution,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the Municipal Art Society, one of two groups that brought the suit.

One must wonder if it’s the powerful nonprofits who sued to reduce the size of this building who pulled some strings to get it done, or the developers themselves. None the less, all kinds of business are about to vanish, people’s entire lives up in smoke thanks to coronavirus, yet the city is still working hard for developers and connected leftist nonprofits.

The NY Post pointed out: In the case of 200 Amsterdam Ave., the DOB recently approved emergency permits, citing safety concerns due to high force winds and damage to partially installed equipment and water infiltration, the spokesman told The Post.