seems it’s still halted. To my knowledge most of the foundation is complete, so there should be no problem following an appeal. It’s important to call out these job-taking NIMBYs. Let’s not pretend they went through with this entire rezoning to accomplish anything but stop this single tower from being built, even after work was already underway.
[…] Wealthy neighborhood residents — mostly from one neighboring building — have successfully lobbied their local elected officials to rezone a 10-block stretch of the area limiting the scope of Gamma’s tower.
Gamma has halted work on the project as it seeks an appeal. But company president Jonathan Kalikow has said the decision would “set a horrendous precedent in New York, enabling rich folks to stop a nearby building they didn’t like,” and called it “quintessential NIMBY.”
A Manhattan neighborhood group is taking its battle against a 67-story condo tower to court.
The East River 50s Alliance said it will challenge a decision by the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals that gives developer Gamma Real Estate more time to finish the foundation for its tower without being bound by new zoning restrictions that would cut its planned height by about half. The zoning change was put into effect as construction was under way on Sutton 58, the project the alliance calls a “monstrous, out-of-place mega-tower.”
In granting Gamma a six-month extension Tuesday, the board “ignored the law and the facts in order to rubber-stamp a developer’s bad conduct,” Ben Kallos, the city councilman who led the rezoning campaign, said in a phone interview. “We’re going to have to go to the courts, which will hopefully have less political influence.
Work on Sutton 58, in the Sutton Place neighborhood along the East River, was halted in December when the city council approved regulations capping the height of all new buildings in the area. Gamma had been racing against the clock to lay the tower’s foundation before the vote, which would have exempted the project from the new rules. At the time, the developer said it was just 10 work days away from completing the foundation, so the six-month extension effectively would allow the tower to be built to its full height.
If built to its full 799 feet (244 meters), Sutton 58 would stand twice the height of the current tallest building in the zoning area, which covers 52nd to 59th streets, east of First Avenue and to the edge of the East River.
A spokesman for Gamma said the developer had no comment on the board’s decision or the alliance’s plans to fight it. Representatives for the Board of Standards and Appeals weren’t available for comment.
oh well I guess that means they’ll have to demolish “The Sovereign” and “The Grand Sutton” too since there both monstrous, out-of-place mega-towers and also fugly.
Sutton Place residents filed a lawsuit Sunday in a last-ditch attempt to stop a luxury condo tower from rising on East 58th Street.
The plaintiffs, a group called the East River Fifties Alliance, are residents from the surrounding neighborhood, including condo owners whose views would be blocked by a roughly 800-foot tower under construction at 430 E. 58th St.
The project, Sutton 58, has a tortured history. It was conceived of by ambitious Connecticut developer Joe Beninati years ago and ultimately fell into the hands of his lender, Gamma Real Estate, which decided to build the tower itself.
During the ownership battle and foreclosure process, Sutton Place residents proposed and secured approval for a rezoning of the larger neighborhood. The change mandated squatter buildings, throwing Sutton 58 out of compliance and bringing construction to a halt. However, the Board of Standards and Appeals, a city zoning body, granted the project a reprieve in June. That led to the lawsuit.
Project opponents argue that the board improperly gave Gamma Real Estate six additional months to complete its foundation and be grandfathered into the old zoning rules. In particular, the suit alleges that the board failed to do an independent review of the development and Gamma skirted construction rules to complete as much of its foundation as possible before the new zoning took effect in late December.
================== http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180827/REAL_ESTATE/180829893/east-side-residents-sue-to-stop-condo-tower
Persistent they are. Yah gotta give them that. They just don’t give up. Eventually, its futile, but damn if you will, even if futile, they still press on.
Signs of having nothing better to do. Normal humans don’t have time to constantly persist on nonsensical issues like “stopping skyscraper construction” in a “skyscraper city”.
Sutton Place = The New Gated Community. Developers won’t be building new stocks of housing if 50% of the mass of new buildings need to be below 150 feet. All to try and fail to stop this single tower.
for the sake of your sanity, don’t attempt to read this article or look into this case unless you have a legal or finance background
The appellate division of the Supreme Court of New York delivered a decision yesterday rejecting Gamma’s complaint of “tortious interference with contract,” potentially setting the table for a troubling precedent. Specifically, it appears, for now, to permit a change in the treatment of a bankruptcy-remote special-purpose entity [SPE] so that a borrower may file bankruptcy and hold up a lender’s remedies in the case of a default.
The Pilevskys argued that Gamma’s claims of tortious interference with contract were unfounded, being that bankruptcy remote and special-purpose entity provisions are preempted by the federal bankruptcy code.
I have been out of touch with the NYC Architectural-Development forums for too long apparently: I was not aware of this project. I just read the entire thread and am amazed at the tortured, and just out right odd, history of this particular development project. Thanks to everyone for the great photos, commentary and news links; I am feeling like I am back in-the-loop. I like every architectural design by TJ Hansen that I have seen to date, so I am confident they will come up with a beauty to behold.
