The Lower East Side's newest "skyscraper," a project of the Pomeranc Group at 200 Allen Street, will be a 102-room luxury hotel that will be topped by 8 condominium apartments.
The 18-story building will be 222 feet nine inches tall and will be clad in class and zinc panels. The mid-block building will extend through the block to Orchard Street and it utilizes air-rights acquired from properties on the northern end of the block between Houston and Stanton Streets.
The building is an "as-of-right" development, that is, one that conforms to existing zoning and building regulations and does not require public review. Nonetheless, the developers made a presentation of their plans last night to the Housing, land disposition, zoning and New York City Housing Authority committee of Community Board 3.
The design by Ed Rawlings of Rawlings Architects indicates a unified series of one-story retail spaces just to the south and along Allen Street to the north. The entrance to the hotel is on Allen Street and the plan calls for a large restaurant and bar with terrace on the second level, above which a four-story, balconied section of the tower is slightly cantilevered at the north and south ends. Above that section the tower is setback and has seven floors with corner balconies facing Allen Street. On the Orchard Street side, the setback tower, which is 75 feet from north to south, has seven floors with balconies in the middle of its facade.
The Pomeranc Group, which is headed by Jason, Michael and Lawrence Pomeranc, built the popular 60 Thompson [Street Hotel in 2001 and also operates the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles and the Sagamore Hotel in Miami. It also has developed a new hotel at 6 Columbus Circle.
The very handsome, Modernist-style project was not well received by the committee. David McWater, the chairman of Community Board 3, compared the project to the Ganesvoort Hotel, the immensely popular new hotel in the meat-packing district, and said "we would not have tolerated the Ganesvoort." Another member of the committee, Harvey Epstein, attacked the design for "clearly not following the tenement style of the community," adding "we're not looking for architecture significance, but something that fits in." Mr. Rawlings responded that his design "has broken down the scale of the building" to be contextual, and noted that Allen Street is "quite wide" and across from the project is the 17-story Rafael Hernandez Housing.
Mr. Epstein introduced a resolution that called upon the developers to make a commitment to hiring staff as much as possible locally and to liaison with the Community Board over issues of noise, traffic, liquor licenses and other matters. The resolution was unanimously passed by the committee.
Mr. McWater said that the property's owner, Serge Hoyda, was attempting to make a "night life strip" by leasing many of his properties to clubs and bars.
The committee also heard a presentation by Neil Pariser of Houston Dee Reality of a plan to erect a 54-unit rental apartment building on the northwest corner Houston Street at Avenue D that would replace the Las Potencias Green Thumb Park. Mr. Pariser explained that the original plan was to merely buy the air rights over the park, but that the city's Housing and Preservation Department said it would not sell the air rights. The six-story red and yellow brick building would have 30 studio apartments and 24 one-bedroom units and that the one-bedroom units were reserved for affordable housing under the city's 80-20 program. Mr. Epstein introduced a resolution that was unanimously passed by the committee that expressed concern about the loss of open space and the number of affordable housing units and called for a meeting with the developer and city officials to see if a plan more acceptable to the community could be created.
The 18-story building will be 222 feet nine inches tall and will be clad in class and zinc panels. The mid-block building will extend through the block to Orchard Street and it utilizes air-rights acquired from properties on the northern end of the block between Houston and Stanton Streets.
The building is an "as-of-right" development, that is, one that conforms to existing zoning and building regulations and does not require public review. Nonetheless, the developers made a presentation of their plans last night to the Housing, land disposition, zoning and New York City Housing Authority committee of Community Board 3.
The design by Ed Rawlings of Rawlings Architects indicates a unified series of one-story retail spaces just to the south and along Allen Street to the north. The entrance to the hotel is on Allen Street and the plan calls for a large restaurant and bar with terrace on the second level, above which a four-story, balconied section of the tower is slightly cantilevered at the north and south ends. Above that section the tower is setback and has seven floors with corner balconies facing Allen Street. On the Orchard Street side, the setback tower, which is 75 feet from north to south, has seven floors with balconies in the middle of its facade.
The Pomeranc Group, which is headed by Jason, Michael and Lawrence Pomeranc, built the popular 60 Thompson [Street Hotel in 2001 and also operates the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles and the Sagamore Hotel in Miami. It also has developed a new hotel at 6 Columbus Circle.
The very handsome, Modernist-style project was not well received by the committee. David McWater, the chairman of Community Board 3, compared the project to the Ganesvoort Hotel, the immensely popular new hotel in the meat-packing district, and said "we would not have tolerated the Ganesvoort." Another member of the committee, Harvey Epstein, attacked the design for "clearly not following the tenement style of the community," adding "we're not looking for architecture significance, but something that fits in." Mr. Rawlings responded that his design "has broken down the scale of the building" to be contextual, and noted that Allen Street is "quite wide" and across from the project is the 17-story Rafael Hernandez Housing.
Mr. Epstein introduced a resolution that called upon the developers to make a commitment to hiring staff as much as possible locally and to liaison with the Community Board over issues of noise, traffic, liquor licenses and other matters. The resolution was unanimously passed by the committee.
Mr. McWater said that the property's owner, Serge Hoyda, was attempting to make a "night life strip" by leasing many of his properties to clubs and bars.
The committee also heard a presentation by Neil Pariser of Houston Dee Reality of a plan to erect a 54-unit rental apartment building on the northwest corner Houston Street at Avenue D that would replace the Las Potencias Green Thumb Park. Mr. Pariser explained that the original plan was to merely buy the air rights over the park, but that the city's Housing and Preservation Department said it would not sell the air rights. The six-story red and yellow brick building would have 30 studio apartments and 24 one-bedroom units and that the one-bedroom units were reserved for affordable housing under the city's 80-20 program. Mr. Epstein introduced a resolution that was unanimously passed by the committee that expressed concern about the loss of open space and the number of affordable housing units and called for a meeting with the developer and city officials to see if a plan more acceptable to the community could be created.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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