UPTOWN A parking lot that for years served patrons of the Uptown Theatre and other entertainment venues will be redeveloped into a five-story apartment building.

Developer JAB Realty is seeking a building permit to begin turning the parking lot at Lawrence and Magnolia avenues into a five-story, 54-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail space, city records show. The project is a transit oriented development, meaning it can offer fewer than the citys required number of parking spaces because of its proximity to major public transit lines.

A building permit has yet to be approved, city records indicate. The development would replace a parking lot behind the Uptown Theatre that has been around for nearly 60 years, according to Uptown Update.

Chicago-based JAB Realty bought the parking lot last year for $3.45 million, property records show.

Little else is known about the planned development, however. The developer is not seeking a zoning change as the propertys current zoning allows for high-rise housing. That means the project does not require aldermanic approval, like many developments that require zoning changes.

Ald. Matt Martins office only learned of the development proposal after a 47th Ward staffer saw construction signage at the site. Josh Mark, Martins director of development and infrastructure, said he then searched the propertys address in building permit databases, and then asked City Hall staff for help learning more. The developer is using the address 4806 N. Magnolia Ave., which previously was not used for the property, complicating the search, Mark said.

As-of-right building highlights a dichotomy in Chicagos development approval process, Mark said.

Either [aldermen] have veto power and full say, or we have zero power, Mark said.

Renderings of the development have not yet been made public, Mark said. A representative for JAB Realty did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Once built, the building would neighbor the Uptown Theatre, which is undergoing a $75 million renovation that would make the long-dormant theater the center of Uptowns reinvigorated entertainment district. After years of fits and starts, work on the theater renovation is scheduled to ramp up this year, Ald. James Cappleman (46th) previously said.

JAB Realtys project is just the latest large-scale apartment project planned for Uptown and it isnt the only one where a parking lot property will be repurposed for residential use.

A few blocks east of the JAB site, Cedar Street is working to turn another long-time parking lot off Lawrence Avenue into an 84-unit rental complex. Closer to the lakefront, developers are seeking to redevelop a parking lot at the former Immaculata High School campus into a 23-story senior living center.

Do stories like this matter to you?Subscribe to Block Club Chicago.Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicagos neighborhoods.

Already subscribe?Click hereto support Block Clubwith a tax-deductible donation.

View post:
Parking Lot Behind Uptown Theatre Will Be Turned Into 5-Story Apartment Building - Block Club Chicago

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. City Manager Mark Watson told a crowd of about 50 people last week that construction will begin on a line of five stores in the next couple of weeks at the Main Street Oak Ridge development.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. City Manager Mark Watson told a crowd of about 50 people last week that construction will begin on a line of five stores in the next couple of weeks at the Main Street Oak Ridge development.

The stores, as stated on developer RealtyLinks website, will include Five Below, a discount store. The other four stores are not identified.

Watsons announcement came during a talk at the League of Women Voters Lunch with the League meeting which took place Tuesday, March 3.

The line of stores, proposed by RealtyLink, has faced its share of controversy. Among other issues, citizens have criticized it for closing off a previous entrance to the development from South Rutgers Avenue which had a roundabout.

However, Watson spoke of the five upcoming businesses and the development as a sign of progress.

We all remember the black hole in the center of our community, Watson said regarding the vacant spaces at Oak Ridge Mall in its last days.

At an earlier meeting of the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board, Watson said the transfer date for the new businesses will be in August.

Itll move pretty fast during this time, he said.

Watson said the contractor is Vanoy Construction, which he described as the folks that knocked down the old Sears Building, also at the Main Street Oak Ridge site.

The five new stores fit with Watsons general theme about change in Oak Ridge.

He described the current South Illinois Avenue shopping center which includes Aldi, Panera, Dos Bros, Aubreys, Fast Pace Urgent Care and Aspen Dental as formerly just a grassy lot that now is jam packed with users.

Watson spoke positively about recent and upcoming changes in the city during his time as manager, including the new Senior Center, new fountain in the center of Jackson Square, new housing for the International Friendship Bell, and residential developments like The Preserve at Oak Ridge, formerly Rarity Ridge.

He also spoke of several developments in the future including the new Water Treatment Plant, renovations to Scarboro Park and the new Oak Ridge Schools Preschool.

Applewood Apartments

Watson spoke positively about the demolition of the Applewood Apartments on West Hunter Circle, East Hunter Circle and Hillside Road, which were in violation of several city codes. He described working with the owner as an obstacle.

Today the old site is ready for development. Unfortunately it still has the same owner, he told the crowd. That owner, although Watson did not mention him by name, is Joe Levitt.

Vacant buildings

An audience member asked Watson about vacant retail buildings.

Watson said the city can take some vacant buildings owners to court for not upgrading their buildings. For example, he said, the city is currently looking at an old Chinese restaurant site that was not inhabitable.

When the market changes, youll begin to see some new things happen, he said.

Data Center, test track

Watson spoke about a future data center either at the Heritage Center or the Horizon Center. He said there had been inquiries over the last five years, including one the city is negotiating now. During an interview, when asked about the low number of jobs data centers generate, Watson explained the data center would generate new property tax revenue for the city.

Also at the meeting, Watson touched on another Horizon Center project, a proposed motorsports complex and test track. City IDB Chairman David Wilson is still negotiating the projects details and the IDB will also have to agree to sell the land. At the meeting, however, Watson did give some details about the proposal. He said people would use it for some testing of cars and some recreation.

This is not Bristol, he said, referencing the Bristol Motor Speedway. Were not talking 100,000 people coming to watch a race. He also said the project wont sear the landscape with total tree clearing.

Main Street Lofts

Another development Watson talked about to the League of Women Voters was the Main Street Lofts apartment development at the former American Museum of Science and Energy site. The project will involve demolishing the old building to build the apartments.

Watson has said there have been continued delays with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development concerning the development.

Well continue to push that along, he recently told the IDB.

Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 220-5502 and follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal.

Read more:
City manager: Construction of five stores to begin soon - Oak Ridger

March 11, 2020

Chicago-based developerMoceri + Roszak is launching sales forParkline Chicago, a new 26-story luxury tower featuring 24 residential condominiums,190 apartments and 6,400square feet of ground-floor retail at 60 E. Randolph St. in the Loop. The buildings sales gallery is slated to open on March 18.

Currently under construction, withClark Constructionas general contractor,the condos are expected to deliver in spring 2021. Leasing of the apartments will begin closer to the completion of the building, which is scheduled for mid-2021.

The hybrid apartment/condominium model allows for the inclusion oftwo additional floors of best-in-class amenities that would be challenging to include in a condo-only project, said Moceri + Roszaks Thomas Roszak. All amenities will be professionally managed and maintained, and the thoughtful mix of offerings will greatly benefit each condo owners lifestyle and property value.

Connect With Moceri + Roszak

Get CRE News in 150 words

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny

Tags: Apartments & Multifamily, Condominium, Development

apartments condominium development

chicago-news downtown

Hybrid Apartment/Condo Tower Coming to the Loop

Paul Bubny

Go here to read the rest:
Hybrid Apartment/Condo Tower Coming to the Loop - ConnectCRE

A San Antonio developer is starting work this month on nearly 300 luxury apartments in northern Bexar County.

Embrey Partners LTD is building the complex, a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, on U.S. 281 just outside Hill Country Village.

We worked closely with officials from Hill Country Village to ensure that our community concept plan would fit the context of the adjacent neighborhood, Jimmy McCloskey, executive vice president for development, said in a statement.

On ExpressNews.com: Owner of former Lone Star Brewery complex wants at least $13.5 million for property

The firm bought land in the area last month, deed records show. Much of the property is outside the city limits, and Embrey has an agreement with the Hill Country Village requiring it to pay an annual fee of more than $40,000 in lieu of taxes.

Embrey also will apply for permits from the city and follow its landscape ordinance, Mayor Gabriel Durand-Hollis said.

We felt that it was a win-win, he said. They stay in the extraterritorial jurisdiction rather than be subject to our city taxes, but its still a lower fee than if they went into San Antonio.

Rents at the complex, dubbed the Estates at Hill Country Village, will range from $1,200 to $2,500 per month. Embrey declined to disclose the cost of the project.

Residents are expected to begin moving in during the second quarter of 2021 and construction to wrap up in early 2022.

Embrey is known for building upscale apartments in Texas and other states. In San Antonio, the developer has built complexes at the Pearl, near the Rim and on the far West Side.

On ExpressNews.com: Terramark building mixed-income apartment complex on near West Side

The company is working on a mixed-use development with luxury apartments and office space near Alamo Heights thats expected to be finished in fall 2021. Embrey plans to move its headquarters there, taking about half of the office space and leasing out the rest.

The firm also is teaming with Area Real Estate, a San Antonio developer led by David Adelman, to demolish several self-storage buildings near downtown and construct apartments and office, retail and commercial space. The plans also call for removing several billboards that have long been viewed as an eyesore.

Construction is expected to start this spring and take roughly a year, Adelman said in November.

madison.iszler@express-news.net

View original post here:
Developer building nearly 300 luxury apartments in north Bexar County - San Antonio Express-News

Treasure Coast Newspapers Published 4:00 a.m. ET March 11, 2020

Would-be Centennial Place architect Andres Duany wants to convert towering "Big Blue" into a conference center. He doesn't understand Vero. Height restrictions have given our town an envied tree canopy. We want to keep it that way. "Big Blue" must go.

Stephen Madeline, Vero Beach

Gil Smart's Feb. 26 column about the Stuart Springtree development is factually erroneous and poorly reasoned. Smart incorrectly described the proposed project as "a 280-town home plan on 13.5 acres along U.S. 1." The project actually consists of 270 or 280 "resort style" apartments in seven four-story buildings. No workforce or affordable housing units are proposed.

The property was annexed by the city in 2017. It is surrounded by single-family homes and mobile homes that have been around for decades. The developer wants to change commercial zoning like the zoning on other properties along Federal Highway to multi-family residential zoning. Only two of the seven proposed apartment buildings are on the highway. The others are farther back on the property near surrounding homes. Vehicles entering or leaving the project will use the existing neighborhoods' entry drives, adding an estimated 1,500 trips a day.

As a resident of a single-family neighborhood in Stuart, should I worry that the city will approve a four-story apartment building on the vacant lot up the street? Should residents of existing neighborhoods outside the city worry that Stuart will annex adjacent properties and destroy their neighborhoods by changing the development pattern and rules to benefit developers and city coffers?

Smart asks what can be done when a property owner wants to build an incompatible development next door. The answer is simple: Work with the neighbors. Don't be a bully. Design your project in a way that will complement, not destroy, the character of existing neighborhoods.

We can protect our neighborhoods by using common sense in planning, designing, and approving new development. Good developers make good neighbors. Bad developers destroy our quality of life and community character.

Virginia Sherlock, Stuart

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally in Dearborn, Michigan, on March 7.(Photo: Paul Sancya, Associated Press)

Sorry, Gil Smart, but you completely missed the mark in your March 4 column declaring that the Jensen Beach Boulevard widening/resurfacing project is the most annoying road construction project on the Treasure Coast.

I submit that the Kanner Highway widening project tops the list of most annoying. First we suffered through almost three years (2016 to 2019) of widening Kanner Highway from three to six lanes between the I-95 Interchange and Monterey Road.

Now those of us who live south of the I-95 Interchange are suffering through another projected two years (2019 to 2021) of widening Kanner Highway from two lanes to four lanes between I-95 and Pratt Whitney Road (CR-711). Were currently enduring the fourth year of construction between us and Downtown Stuart.

At present the Florida Club turning lanes have been eliminated. The entrance to the Florida Club is almost totally obscured and impossible to find at night. The Florida Club entrance is a rear-end collision waiting to happen for those attempting to make a left turn into the club.

Karl Saal, Stuart

Another year has passed without answer to the basic question on claims of pay inequities. Suzanne Jones March 1 letter claims that working women and racial minorities are victims of sex- and race-based discrimination, and that women are paid only 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man.

The question, again, is why a single sane employer would employ a man if he or she had to pay a 25 percent premium over what a female employee could be paid for exactly the same or comparable work? Clearly, employers would not do so and many men would be unemployed, priced completely out of the labor market. Is it at all possible that factors other than misogyny and racism may influence pay disparities in the United States?

Jim Trout, Sebastian

I do not want Bernie Sanders as the Democratic candidate for president of the United States. I don't like the way he talks. I don't like his socialistic agenda. I don't believe some of his statements are accurate. I don't like the fact that he won't release his doctors' records. You can pay people enough to write what you want them to write, so letters from three doctors are not the same as the medical records. He has had a heart attack.

Being president of the U.S. is a very stressful job. Electing a person like Bernie Sanders will create upset like we had with the election of President Trump, but in a different way.

Margaret Eubank, Port St. Lucie

Andy Marlette(Photo: Andy Marlette)

Read or Share this story: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/opinion/2020/03/11/letters-editor-march-11-2020/5003211002/

See the rest here:
Letters to the Editor: March 11, 2020 - TCPalm

Despite being twice delayed, a new 15-story apartment building soon should be coming to Duluth's downtown skyline.

Adam Fulton, deputy director of Duluth's planning and economic development division, expressed optimism the project will be ready to go soon, beginning with the demolition of the Voyageur Lakewalk Inn, the former Hacienda Del Sol restaurant and a building that was formerly home to the First Oriental Grocery store.

"The City has been in close conversation with the development team on this project, and we anticipate they will be finalizing financing over the next few weeks. As far as next steps, we anticipate that demo, site prep, and construction will begin in the spring of 2020," he said Thursday.

Initially, Northstar Development Interests LLC was to have started work on a sleek glass-paneled apartment building in August of last year, but the Duluth Economic Development Authority twice amended a development agreement for the $75 million project, extending the deadline to commence work first to Dec. 31, 2019 and then to April 30 of this year.

Lakeview Tower at 333 E. Superior St. is expected to boast 204 apartments, with commercial space on the ground floor, perhaps even a grocery store.

The project involves Duluth-based Titanium Partners LLC and Madison-based Landmark Development. Brian Forcier, Titanium's managing partner, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The development is expected to proceed with the help of $6.2 million in tax-increment financing a form of subsidy that uses new property taxes generated by a project to cover certain qualifying development costs.

More here:
Final preparations in works for construction to begin on downtown Duluth high-rise - Duluth News Tribune

For a building still behind construction fencing, with plywood strewn around because of the mud, Station House on Capitol Hill sure is a popular place.

Though the 110-unit apartment building isnt set to open for another five weeks, its already received 1,300 rental applications which equals more than 10 people or families lining up for a shot at each apartment, sight unseen.

Three hundred applications were filed in the first ten minutes, like show tickets going on sale. It reached a thousand in the first day, says Capitol Hill Housing, the developer of the building at the corner of E. John St. and 10th Avenue East.

Were in the thick of an affordable housing crisis, and this is what it looks like, said Yiling Wong of the nonprofit developer.

The building is subsidized to be affordable to renters making 60 percent of Seattles median income meaning the most you can make to live there is $66,000 for a family of four (family median income here now tops $110,000). The buildings rent for a one bedroom maxes out at $1,210 a month. That may not sound that cheap, but its about 40 percent below Capitol Hills average one-bedroom market rent of $2,100.

This is how its going whenever affordable housing opens around Seattle. Last week the online site Crosscut reported that a new nonprofit building in the Central Area drew 850 applications for just 74 spots.

Its quite the contrast to where I work, down in Seattles crane-pocked crater where the prosperity bomb went off. In South Lake Union and also downtown, its been common during the past year to see signs begging renters to apply.

UP TO 8 WEEKS FREE! says a deal right now at West Edge, a new luxury tower downtown.

Resident-Only Exclusive Memberships to SLUs Hottest Social Club, says a leasing deal at The Marlowe, in the Amazon jungle.

The four-quarter average of vacancy rates in South Lake Union is 12 percent meaning about one of every eight apartments has been empty over the last year, according to figures from Apartment Insights/RealData, which surveys landlords here quarterly. Thats better than it was a year ago, when 18 percent were vacant.

The rents in some of these new buildings are astronomical. The West Edge, for example, is advertising that21 units are available immediately (out of 339). The average rent for these 21 units is $7,000 per month (it ranges from $2,500 for a one bedroom on the second floor to $19,000 a month for a 38th floor penthouse).

The luxury building boom downtown is driving rents to San Francisco heights. Apartment Insights surveyed the buildings that are going through lease-up (which typically means theyve opened in the past 12 months), and found that in these new buildings the average rent in South Lake Union was $3,241. In downtown Seattle, it was even higher, at $3,489. The most rarefied neighborhood of all, downtown Bellevue, saw the average rent in new buildings hit an altitude-defying $4,580 a month. Two Lincoln Tower in Bellevue currently has one empty apartment going for $21,700 a month or more than a quarter-million dollars a year, just for rent.

In New York, which is well ahead of us in hollowing out its middle class soul, theyve coined a term for this: bluelining. In the redlining of 50 years ago, the financial industry deprived entire neighborhoods of resources. Here the worry is the opposite: That certain parts of town are being deluged with so much investment aimed only at the uber-wealthy (the blue bloods) that entire neighborhoods are becoming off-limits to anyone else. Plus, money chasing ever more luxury causes shock waves of higher rents down the line.

New Yorks example is extremethe squeezed middle class, shrink-wrapped into tiny bedrooms, beneath a canopy of empty sky palaces, The Atlantic magazine wrote about the phenomenon.

That is extreme here our sky palaces arent exactly empty (the Apartment Insights report said theres a very healthy appetite in Seattle for $5,000 per month apartments). But we are well on our way to becoming what inequality activist Chuck Collins calls a swanktuary city. When you have 1,300 people lined up for a shot at a modest apartment building, but its the sky palaces that keep rising in huge waves of development, something is getting seriously out of whack.

More subsidized housing (which likely means more taxes) is one obvious answer. But at some point society may also have to grapple with the meaning of housing altogether: Is it for people to live in, or our money?

Read the original:
Swanktuary city: No vacancy in Seattle, except at the top - Seattle Times

ST. PETERSBURG Moss Construction has finished work on ICON Central, a 15-story luxury apartment building at 855 Central Ave. in downtown St. Petersburg.

Developed by Miami-based The Related Group, construction of the 368-unit project included the total renovation of the 1926 Union Trust Bank building. The buildings residential units range in size from 542 to 1,470 square feet.

According to a press release, the developer and builder also added 15,000 square feet of street-level retail space to the landmark buildings footprint, bringing its total retail capacity to 19,000 square feet.

We took a previously underserved site that housed the stunning and historic Union Trust Bank building and transformed it into the catalyst for the neighborhoods transformation into a vibrant and walkable community, states Jessica Melendez, vice president of development for The Related Group, in the release. Not only are we seeing impressive leasing activity, but there is also significant interest in the retail space that we look forward to debuting soon.

To maintain the building's historical look and feel, the release states, the project design called for a contemporary federal architecture style that wraps around the structure.

This project was not only about creating and delivering the luxury experience that the ICON brand is known for, but also preserving and incorporating St. Petersburgs historical architecture, Moss Senior Vice President John Bowden states in the release. We are proud to have been able to bring Mosss years of industry experience to ICON Central, and we could not have done it without our great team, our subcontractors and suppliers.

Read more from the original source:
Builder completes work on 15-story luxury apartment building - Business Observer

The warning from the New York City building inspector was blunt. The facade of the apartment building in the Bronx was crumbling and a corner was separating. The playground outside a day care center in the building had to close immediately.

That was in 2001. Nineteen years later there is still a three-foot gap in the brick facade and the playground, for the centers 50 children between 2 and 4 years old, is still off limits.

The buildings owner has ignored at least 19 violations, failed to pay $49,000 in fines and has not shown up for seven hearings on the dangerous conditions.

Yet the city has been unable to force the owner to make any repairs.

Instead, a 150-foot stretch of scaffolding that envelops the front of the building was put up in 2011 to protect pedestrians and remains there today.

Across the city, about 1,400 buildings are wrapped in wood-and-steel sidewalk sheds not for construction, but because their facades are a serious safety threat. The sites have major structural problems, including corroded masonry and fractured terra cotta, which could come loose and hurt or kill people on the ground.

[The addresses of the 1,400 buildings are at the end of this article.]

Many line the citys most heavily trafficked sidewalks, from luxury condo towers near Central Park to office buildings in Midtown Manhattan.

Others are miles from Manhattan, tucked on impoverished and overlooked streets.

Nobody pays attention. Nobody does anything about it, said Alexander Perez, who lives next to the Bronx day care and whose two daughters attended the center, a half-mile from Yankee Stadium.

Scaffolding in New York often stays up for years without any repairs being done.

Despite rigorous city building laws and a string of high-profile accidents, including the death of a woman killed by falling terra cotta in December, an examination by The New York Times found that building owners routinely flout rules and enforcement actions with no repercussions.

Over the past decade, landlords have ignored more than $31 million in fines over unsafe facades, according to an analysis by The Times. Repairs at buildings have been slow-walked or not started at all. During that period, more than 6,000 buildings higher than six floors did not inspect their facades or failed to file their findings, as required by law.

One building, the Esplanade Manhattan, reported to the city in 2011 that its facade was safe, even though the site was never inspected. Four years later a 2-year-old girl was killed by falling terra cotta from the building.

Critics call the fines too small and say the city does not aggressively deploy the tools it has to impose financial consequences, such as threatening a landlords credit.

The citys building inspectors charged with enforcing the rules can impose fines of $1,000 a year for missing facade inspections and $1,000 for each month that an unsafe building goes unrepaired.

The most powerful tools in their arsenal, such as emergency orders to vacate, are applied only in extreme cases.

City officials acknowledged the shortcomings but said they were moving rapidly to beef up the fines, punish negligent landlords, including charging them criminally in court and adding more facade inspectors.

Were taking aggressive action, Melanie E. La Rocca, the buildings commissioner, said, so that these owners make the needed repairs to their buildings, so that these sheds can be taken down.

Some building owners have not even taken the basic step of putting up sidewalk sheds or netting, leading to deadly consequences.

In April, city inspectors told the owner of 729 Seventh Avenue, a 17-story building just north of Times Square, that terra cotta pieces were missing from its facade and ordered the owner, Himmel + Meringoff Properties, to pay a $1,250 fine and put up a sidewalk shed.

It didnt and eight months later, Erica L. Tishman, 60, an architect, was killed when she was hit by a falling piece.

A sidewalk shed was installed hours after Ms. Tishman died, and the company plans to remove all of the decorative terra cotta. A spokesman for Himmel + Meringoff said repairs were not made earlier because the severity of the April violation had been downgraded by a judge who determined that the facade was not unsafe.

The vast number of faulty facades reflects, in part, the citys successful effort to systematically assess the condition of building facades prompted by the death of a Barnard student in the early 1980s from falling concrete. Eleven other cities, including Chicago and San Francisco, have adopted similar facade rules.

But the proliferation of sidewalk sheds illustrates the weakness in enforcement.

[You can find more information about violations in New York City by searching this Department of Buildings website.]

In New York, sheds around unsafe buildings stretch for a total of 81 miles eyesores that obscure first-floor businesses, collect trash and, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio, are great for criminals as a place to hide.

Even one of the most notorious buildings, a 12-story apartment tower at 601 West 115th Street owned by Columbia University, still has had problems.

In 1979, Grace Gold, a freshman at Barnard, was killed by a falling 1-by-2-foot piece of concrete from that building. Nearly four decades later, an inspection in 2017 found that there were still cracking and crumbling bricks. A sidewalk shed was installed and the university paid $4,150 in fines.

There is no sense of urgency, and the fines are a joke, said Ms. Golds sister, Lori Gold, who has advocated for safer buildings since her sisters death.

A spokeswoman for Columbia University said the facade was fixed in November and that the university would ask the city to sign off on the repairs so the sidewalk shed could be taken down.

In addition to lax enforcement, inspectors have been accused of not acting swiftly enough to inspect facades when there are clear warnings. A city investigation after the death of Greta Greene, the 2-year-old killed outside the Esplanade Manhattan, faulted the Buildings Department for not acting on a tip eight months earlier that the facade had a scary crack that warranted getting someone over pretty quick on this.

In recent months, however, the Buildings Department has stepped up its targeting of negligent building owners.

In October, the department filed misdemeanor charges of noncompliance in Criminal Court in Manhattan against the owners of the seven buildings with sidewalk sheds older than a decade, which includes those used for construction and to shield against unsafe facades. A guilty verdict could bring a one-year jail sentence and fines up to $25,000.

Sidewalk sheds are a critical tool for protecting the public against the dangers of falling debris, said Ms. La Rocca, who was appointed commissioner last May. They can also be a nuisance when building owners let repair work languish, keeping their sheds up far longer than necessary.

The department has also brought charges against individual tenants, including the board president at 409 Edgecombe in Upper Manhattan, a 13-story apartment building, whose shed has been up for 14 years, longer than any other in the city.

Days later, building officials told the city that the facade would be fixed.

Now the department plans to press criminal charges against owners of all buildings with sheds older than three years, a list that includes about 570 properties, according to two people familiar with the agencys actions. The agency is doubling the size of its facade inspection team to 22 members and will soon enact significantly higher fines for facade conditions.

In the days after Ms. Tishman was killed, the department also conducted surprise inspections of roughly 1,330 buildings previously deemed unsafe and found that 220 of them had no pedestrian protections.

The building commissioner is not messing around, said Ben Kallos, a Councilman who has urged the department to do far more to take on negligent building owners. Regardless of who owns the building, they have to keep it safe and the city should be helping out.

Yet sidewalk sheds remain a common sight across the city.

In the Bronx, parents of children at the Mid-Bronx CCRP Early Childhood Center, the first-floor day care in the building where scaffolding has been up for over eight years, said they had not been told the facade was unsafe and believed that the shed was there for construction.

In fact, more than 18 years after a building inspector first noted the walls separating at the corner of the buildings exterior, another inspector, in Nov. 2019, cited the same problem during a review. SUBSTANTIAL VERTICAL CRACKS, the inspector wrote in a citation carrying a $6,250 fine, which has not yet been paid. A partial vacate order, prohibiting access to the playground, was taped to the day care door.

Olga Toledo, who had worked at the day care for 17 years, including as the director, said she quit in 2014 in part because of the landlords refusal to fix the property.

You could see the stuff coming off and falling on the ground, Ms. Toledo said.

Walter Puryear, an administrator at Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council, a nonprofit that owns and operates the building, blamed the city for the faulty facade.

The building, he said, was not in a very good condition when the city gave the property to Mid-Bronx in 1993 as part of former Mayor Edward I. Kochs affordable-housing plan to convert city property into residential units.

The nonprofit has wanted to fix the facade, Mr. Puryear said, but could not afford it without financial aid from the city.

They are taking us to court like we are landlords who dont want to do repairs, Mr. Puryear said. The city is aware of that but instead of taking a more proactive initiative of how we can work together, the city instead fines us continually.

An official at the citys Housing and Preservation Department said it had no records showing that Mid-Bronx had sought help.

Two days after The Times started inquiring about the buildings facade, Mid-Bronx hired a contractor to start repairs, at an estimated cost of $659,000.

The nonprofit, Mr. Puryear said, was taking out a loan to help pay for it.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

Read more:
Facades on 1,400 Buildings in New York Are a Threat to Pedestrians - The New York Times

Theres a whole lot more housing heading for the booming Western Avenue corridor of Allston, this time on the site of the Boston Skating Club.

The Davis Cos. on Friday filed initial plans with the city for a 535-unit apartment building on the site of the Skating Club, along with a hotel and condominium project on the site of a hotel Davis owns next door. It would be the latest, and at 22 stories by far the largest, new building on a stretch of Western Ave. that has exploded with new development in recent years, where apartment and increasingly lab buildings are replacing old gas stations and auto shops from Barrys Corner near Harvard Stadium to the Arsenal Street bridge to Watertown.

Theres a lot of really exciting developments going on to the east, and to the south of here, said Stephen Davis, managing director of The Davis Cos. We thought this was the best time to move forward.

Davis Cos., which built and recently opened the Telford 180 condo building next door, bought the Skating Club site in 2018 for $26.25 million. Eighteen months prior, it had paid $14.2 million for the old Days Hotel next door. The two properties combined give it more than three acres to work with on a site along Soldiers Field Road overlooking the Charles River.

After the Skating Club moves to its new complex in Norwood which is expected to be finished this summer Davis wants to build a 535-unit apartment building, with a 220-space underground garage, on the site. In the projects second phase, Davis would knock down the Days Hotel which it revamped last year as the bright and arts-themed Studio Allston and replace it with a new building with 255-room hotel and 120 condos. In between the buildings would be a large strip of open space that Davis said is designed to improve connections between Western Avenue and the Telford Street overpass to Herter Park and the riverfront.

The way were laying out the buildings has a very specific pedestrian connection to the bridge, Davis said. Youll be able to access the river, as a pedestrian, in a better way.

The filing on Friday was was the first step in what will likely be months of review, and Stephen Davis said he wasnt yet sure when they might start construction. More detailed plans will be filed in the coming weeks, followed by community meetings. Its a part of town thats undergoing massive change, and some residents worry about the impact of new commercial development on rents for existing older housing, and on traffic and bus service along ever-busier Western Avenue.

Last fall, the Boston Planning & Development Agency kicked off a planning study that could ultimately rezone much of the corridor.

Davis said his company has been participating in those conversations and decided to push ahead now before the rezoning is complete in part to meet the plans likely objectives, such as more open space and housing. And while the building will reach 22 stories along Soldiers Field Road, Davis said he envisions it being about the same height as other, shorter, buildings in the works along Western Avenue. Regardless, when its done, he expects there will be a lot of interest in living there.

Increasingly, this is a neighborhood that appeals not only to the traditional Allston-Brighton renter base but to young families and people who want easy commuting access to the city of Boston, he said. We want to create a meaningful option for them."

Tim Logan can be reached at timothy.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.

Read the rest here:
Developer wants to build 535 apartments on the Boston Skating Club site in Allston - The Boston Globe