The second property to be debated at the BSA hearing on Tuesday was 182 15th Street, the massively out-of-scale development being attempted by Isaac Katan in league first with Henry Radusky (Bricolage) and now Robert Scarano. Once again, the crux of the issue was the extent to which corners were cut and laws were broken in an effort to lay the foundation in advance of the grandfathering of the old zoning rules. In this case, everyone acknowledges that the demo contractor (MMG Design) erred in performing mechanical demolition despite only having a permit to do manual demo. As far as we can gather, the other alleged offense is that foundation work began before excavation was complete. Katan’s attorney argued that the developer shouldn’t be penalized because his demo contractor made a mistake. (As if Katan knew nothing about it.) So now the BSA has asked that the architect provide diagrams detailing how much excavation was done and when. “Considering what’s going on,” Katan’s lawyer responded in reference to Scarano’s own problems with the DOB, “We’d prefer to give it to you from the contractor. Now Katan’s lawyers have until May 9 to submit responses, then both sides will have chance to rebutt and the BSA will make its final decision on June 13.
BSA Hearing on Minerva [Brownstoner] GMAP