Tenants Win Garage Fight at Riverside Apartments
After rejecting an initial plan by the Pinnacle Group to build an underground garage as part of its makeover of the historic Riverside Apartments in Brooklyn Heights, the Landmarks Preservation Commission ultimately approved a revised design late last year that preserved the open space. LPC wasn’t the final hurdle for the developer though: The State’s…
After rejecting an initial plan by the Pinnacle Group to build an underground garage as part of its makeover of the historic Riverside Apartments in Brooklyn Heights, the Landmarks Preservation Commission ultimately approved a revised design late last year that preserved the open space. LPC wasn’t the final hurdle for the developer though: The State’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal got to have the final say and after much back-and-forth with the tenants and lawyers for the developer passed down a decision on Tuesday denying the application for a garage. Much of the dispute revolved around whether, by moving the garage below-ground and thereby restoring the courtyard to its original recreational purpose, the developer could raise the rents which had been lowered in the 1990’s when the ground-level parking was determined by DHCR to have resulted in a “reduction in services” to the tenants. In its ruling this week, the agency found that even putting the garage underground would not completely restore the “services” the tenants had enjoyed before the original parking lot was installed. “The proposed plan does not ameliorate the situation as access to the underground facility continues to be through the courtyard/play area and the increase in vehicular traffic in this small area, as provided for in this plan is greater than currently exists,” goes the ruling. “This proposal is in direct conflict with the intended use of this area and the increase of vehicular traffic would be a further negative impact on this service.” Ouch. Presumably the developer’s core thesis for investing in the property has been negated. Pinnacle’s attorney Ken Fisher had the following comment for the Brooklyn Heights blog: While we are disappointed, this is only the first level of administrative review at DHCR and we are confident that eventually our Landmarks Commission-approved project will move forward and will meet the needs of both area residents for parking as well as the tenants. A PDF of the DHCR ruling we obtained yesterday is here.
State Blocks Higher Rents For Garage [Brooklyn Paper]
No Parking at Riverside Garage? [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Riverside Apartment Tenants Resist Garage [Brownstoner]
LPC Approves Underground Garage at Riverside Apartments [Brownstoner]
LPC Decision on Riverside Apartments Makeover Postponed [Brownstoner]
Landmarks Rejects Plan To Turn Courtyard Into Garage [Brownstoner]
Garage Plan for Heights Building Rears Its Head Again [Brownstoner]
unpleasant tenants, unpleasant landlord, unpleasant apartments. Not worth thinking about.
This is the most asinine decision that I’ve seen in a long time.
Investor offers to improve the property, to ameliorate the parking shortage, and to add green space, and the DHCR (which should have NO jurisdiction here) says no.
Kill rent control.
Anyone know how much they could raise the rents if they eventually build the garage? Those rents have been frozen since 1991, right?
No, actually there are trees back there right now with a paved drive around the green space. The garage/new parking has not been constructed. Also, for some strange reason, they are not renting out the retail space (except for the Laundromat) which is weird, because that corner of BH could really use some stores.
Call me cynical but I can’t believe this fight is about greenspace. It’s about unfreezing rents.Would that other developers had taken the initiative to do something like this. Well, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. A good common sense solution down the drain. So what do they have now? A paved over parking lot. Yes- that’s “green.”
Geez, I think that design looks pretty nice for the tenants. What’s the problem?