Still Working on Foundation at Whole Foods Site in Williamsburg
When we stopped by the Whole Foods site at 242 Bedford Avenue (or 193 Berry Street) over the weekend, they appeared to be working on the foundation. Not much seems to have changed since we stopped by in August, although we didn’t write a story at the time. Work seems to be progressing slowly at…
When we stopped by the Whole Foods site at 242 Bedford Avenue (or 193 Berry Street) over the weekend, they appeared to be working on the foundation. Not much seems to have changed since we stopped by in August, although we didn’t write a story at the time. Work seems to be progressing slowly at the site, although it doesn’t appear to be stalled.
The building is owned by Midtown Equities, Alex Adjmi and Aurora Capital Associates.
I agree, it’s nonsense the arcane DOB regulations. We have seen many houses in in Williamsburg get totally rebuilt from the ground up as a “remodel”, maintaining Only the front facade (literally propped up by stilts to keep it from falling over), then after the new building behind the old facade gets created and signed off, they get another permit to remodel the facade (tearing it off and replacing), again as a remodel, then voila, a brand new building created under the guise of a remodel. Not that it’s a bad thing to put up a new building where the old was almost uninhabitable, but due to the taxes, DOB criteria for new construction vs remodeling, etc it is pretty silly for the DOB to maintain these regulations.
If I remember correctly from a couple years ago, in order to retain the maximum FAR of the encompassed lot(s), they had to do something akin to a “remodel” rather than a “new build”, as a new build wouldn’t allow the old FAR to be of the same size – something about the old building being grandfathered in. So as long as they maintain the old structure in some format they can build a new building around it much larger than what they could build if they razed it all and did a new build. Stupid city bureaucracy.