A community organization, The Soho Alliance, is reported to be planning to appeal a ruling last month by New York State Supreme Court Justice Kibee F. Payne that the Department of Buildings was within its rights when it issued a building permit for the Trump SoHo hotel-condominium project at 246 Spring Street.

The 46-story, 400-unit building has been designed by Gary Handel and was recently topped out.

The December 19, 2008 ruling, made public last week, upheld a May 2008 resolution of the Board of Standards and Appeals that upheld the Buildings Department approval of the project as a "Use Group 5 transient hotel" in a manufacturing zone where no permanent residential development is allowed.

An article today in the on-line edition of GlobeSt.com said that "In a release, Julius Schwarz of Bayrock Group LLC, which is developing the project with the Trump Organization and Sapir Organization, says, 'We are grateful for the decision which was as expected, and we now look forward to preparing for Trump Soho's grand opening which will be taking place in the fall of 2009.'"

The article also quoted Sean Sweeney, the president of the Soho Alliance, as stating that "now we're going to the New York State Appellate Division," adding that his organization's attorney believes it will have "better luck with a three-judge panel rather than a single judge ruling alone."

The building would be the tallest between Madison Square and the Civic Center in Lower Manhattan. The project will have an outdoor swimming pool on the top floor of its five-story base, a Cornelia Spa, a restaurant and catering facility.

The project has frontage on Spring, Varick and Dominick Streets and is not far from the Holland Tunnel and the Hudson River Park.

The coalition that campaigned against the project charged that it violated manufacturing zoning for the site that explicitly prohibits residential uses, maintaining that the developers advertised the project as a "residence."

The property, which was acquired in September, 2005, by Bayrock/Sapir LLC, a partnership of the Bayrock Group, Tamir Sapir and Donald Trump, had been a parking lot and apparently several decades before it had been the site of a Presbyterian Church. A stop work order was issued by the city after human remains were unearthed during excavation, but the order was subsequently lift.

According to Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the developers signed a voluntary "restrictive declaration" with the city that permits owners of condominiums in the project to live in their units a maximum of four months a year. "This is a blatant violation of the zoning," Mr. Berman declared several months ago. His organization issued a press release that said that "Opponents claim that the four month limit will be virtually impossible to enforce, and in fact many owners will use this as their primary, year-round residence."

Purchase price of the rooms includes furnishings that will be designed by David Rockwell of The Rockwell Group that includes "leather-cushioned custom designed beds with full-height headboard," marble flooring in entryways, two-person tubs and separate glass-enclosed showers, "a bar area set in contemporary wood-veneer cabinets, discrete appliances," and "the latest technology is also included with a flat-screen television, DVD and CD players and connections for high-speed Internet access." Purchasers will also have in each unit a private locked closet to keep personal belongings between stays and a safe.

Purchasers will have 24-hour room service, access to the fitness center and space, and ""may also enjoy evening turndown service, garment care" and concierge service.

A brochure for the project indicated it will be part of the reservation system of The Leading Hotels of the World.