Skip to Content
CityRealty Logo
Plans for long-vacant West Broadway site in SoHo
By Carter Horsley   |   From Archives Thursday, September 15, 2005
The long-vacant, 2-story building that fronts for 120 feet at 350 West Broadway in SoHo is planned to be redeveloped as an 11-story building with 16 residential condominiums above the two levels of retail.

Lighthouse Real Estate Ventures has had two hearings before the New York City Board of Standards & Appeals and the final hearing is scheduled for September 20.

Stephen J. Rizzo, the project's zoning attorney, told CityRealty.Com that the design by Rogers Marvel Architects PLLC calls for the apartments to rise in a tower over the southern 70 feet of the frontage along West Broadway.

He said that pending approval by the Board of Standards & Appeals that construction is likely to begin later this year with completion next year. Last week, the board granted a variance to permit the construction of a 7-story mixed-use building at 44 Mercer Street, which is also known as 471 Broadway.

The building at 350 West Broadway is not part of the Soho Historic District and has been vacant for quite a while.

A recent article by Alexandra Schwimmer in the SoHo Journal (Vol. 6, No. 3) stated that "A building that had stood on the same land since 1903 was taken down and a new building erected in 1920," adding that "The sign over the original 1920 garage roll up door read Robins Brake and Spring."

Ms. Schwimmer recounted that the automotive shop was attended by a man who was knicknamed "The Penguin Man" after the introduction of a new villain in 1941 in the Batman comic books.

In the late 1980s, she continued, the old building was demolished and a new two-story building erected, but the new building did not obtain a certificate of occupancy.

The frontage is the longest on SoHo's "main" street and renderings of the proposed retail base of the new project indicate a modern glass facade.
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.