The city plans to pull building permits for the Upper West Side’s largest planned tower only three months after it shot down a challenge that, contrary to city code, the building featured large swaths of empty space between floors to beef up its height.
Opponents have argued that Extell’s 775-foot-tall tower at 50 West 66th Street uses the empty space to boost the building’s overall height in order to hike up the price for apartments on the higher floors. But in November, the city’s Department of Buildings rejected a zoning challenge filed by elected officials and neighborhood preservationist groups that the structural voids—floors for a building’s mechanical equipment—are excessive.
Now, in a surprise reversal, the DOB has ruled that the 160-foot mechanical spaces are not permissible.
“The proposed mechanical space on the 18th floor of the Proposed Building does not meet the definition of ‘accessory use’ of 12-10 of the New York City Zoning Resolution,” DOB Manhattan borough commissioner Martin Rebholz wrote in an “intention to revoke approval” letter this week to Extell. “Specifically, the mechanical space with a floor-to-floor height of approximately 160 feet is not customarily found in connection with residential uses.”
Buildings officials have given Extell 15 days from January 14 to respond to the notice with reasons why the permit should not be revoked; in the meantime the project’s building permit was rescinded, according to Rebholz’s letter. The Department of Buildings did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
City Council member Helen Rosenthal, who has been a vocal opponent against Extell’s project, praised the city’s action.
“The Department of Buildings’ notice of intent to revoke the permits for 50 W. 66th Street is a critical first step in the process to overhaul the City’s approach to mechanical voids and ‘super-talls,’” Rosenthal told Curbed. “We are very pleased that the administration is taking this issue so seriously in terms of W. 66th Street, and we await a final decision.”
Manhattan Borough President Gale brewer called the decision a “victory not only for the Upper West Side, but for communities all over the city.”
“From the beginning, I have opposed the developer’s decision to use a monstrous 160-foot void to boost the number of condos with views—and boost sale prices—while robbing the community of sunlight and air,” Brewer said in a statement. “By ruling that a mechanical space with a floor-to-floor height of 160 feet is not an ‘accessory use’ allowed under zoning, DOB correctly interpreted both the letter and the intent of the City’s zoning code.”
The de Blasio administration announced last summer that it plans to regulate structural voids, as the practice is regularly abused by luxury housing developers to add height to a project without actually adding additional square footage. Officials have not yet announce reforms to curb the practice.
Extell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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