Updates on Two Caton Devos, the Other's a Mystery

Last night Community Board Seven’s Construction and Housing Committee hosted a meeting with Council Member Brad Lander to update the community on three different Caton Place developments: 22 Caton Place, the new school PS/IS 437 planned for Caton Place and East 7th Street and the development making headlines recently, 23 Caton Place. Here are the updates on all three:

22 Caton Place: As previously reported, The Hudson Companies (of Third and Bond) are developing this site. Project manager Alison Novak‎ said that this development will be seven stories with 73 market-rate units. It’ll come with underground parking, a roof terrace, backyard, a gym and a part-time doorman. They expect to achieve, at the very least, LEED Silver status. This month and next the developers are conducting the pre-construction survey. They expect to break ground in late March or April and it’ll be 18-20 months before the full project is complete. The building architect is Kiss + Cathcart; stay tuned for a rendering.

PS/IS 437: This pre-k through 8th grade school will serve both Windsor Terrace and Kensington. It’ll house 757 students total. It’ll also be a “green” school. The School Construction Authority is currently 40 percent finished with the excavation process and expect it to last another month or so. Then the foundation will start going in — another month-long process. If all goes well, the school will be ready to open in September of 2015. There was a lot of concern in the audience about parking (there will be no school parking lot, but a church may offer their parking lot during the week), school zoning and street safety around the area. Because it’s so early in the process, Council Member Lander said the summer of 2014 will likely be the time to discuss all these concerns.

23 Caton Place: Bizarrely, no one knows who the owner or the developer of this project is. Work recently started up here after a long period of inactivity. Council Member Lander called the development “a case history of the real estate boom and crash.” The project has sold three times and neither the community board or Council Member Lander’s office could figure out who it belongs to now. It was confirmed, however, that the architect on record is now DJ Associates, who were not forthcoming with Lander’s office. So that Karl Fischer rendering is definitely outdated. And here’s another bizarre piece to add to the puzzle: this week Windsor Terrace Patch got in touch with the Karl Fischer firm, who told them “As far as we know, that job is on hold—but we are the architects of record.” The firm also stated that those renderings are up to date. A total mystery…