JDS’s Lower East Side skyscraper may be delayed by latest lawsuit

JDS Development Group’s Two Bridges supertall is under threat by the same group of landlords yet again. Roy Schoenberg and Gary Spindler have been battling JDS in court since at least 2016, but have previously seen one of their lawsuits about the Lower East Side skyscraper be dismissed. This time around, a Manhattan State Supreme Court judge has rejected JDS’s motion to dismiss the suit, according to Crain’s, which first reported on the development.

This isn’t really a legal victory for either side just yet, it only means that the court may be receptive to the landlords’ claims. Schoenberg and Spindler want to prevent JDS from combining its plot with that of the landlords’s plot at 235 Cherry Street, which currently holds a one-story building. JDS’s building would cantilever over the single-story building, and the landlords want to prevent that from happening. It’s not yet clear what impact the lawsuit will have on JDS’s project, but it could delay it or block it entirely. JDS had not returned a request for comment at the time of publication.

Time is of the essence for JDS to move forward with its project. The developer does not need to go through a lengthy Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) to move forward with the skyscraper, but it does need an approval from the City Planning Commission. The application will be up for debate in front of the Commission on October 17 as part of a public hearing—many local residents have been opposed to the onslaught of new projects in the Two Bridges area, but it remains to be seen if the City Planning Commission will be swayed by their testimony.