Jamestown Properties presented its plans to add 300,00 square feet of commercial space to its Chelsea Market complex in Chelsea at a Preservation and Planning Committee meeting Monday of Community Board 4.

Most of the proposed new space, about 250,000 square feet, would be stacked atop the western end of the full-block retail and office complex between Ninth and Tenth Avenues and 15th and 16th Streets. The remainder will rise above its low-rise building on the southwest corner of Ninth Avenue and 16th Street.

The planned additions require a zoning waiver. "The zoning change would bring the Market into a special district that allows extra floor area in return for $50 per square foot paid into a City-managed High Line improvement fund to meet the Park's long-term capital needs," observed the ArchiTakes website.

An article by Joey Arak yesterday at ny.curbed.com noted that under the waiver "the developer would be paying $50 for every square foot of added space - over $16 million -into the High Line Improvement Fund, and would build a High Line amenities package that includes public restrooms and a new space used for events and education. Friends of the High Line co-founder Joshua David made an appearance to talk about how much the park would benefit from the added revenue."

"Swimming in gold coins Scrooge McDuck style after selling a building [111 Eighth Avenue to Google for $1.9 billion in cold hard cash," the article said, Jamestown showed renderings by Studios Architecture that indicated that the additions would be mostly red-brick and boxy with some indentations.

"In a view looking north from the Hudson River Park bike path, and lined up behind other High Line straddlers, 450 West 14th Street and the Standard Hotel," the ArchiTakes article said, "the proposed Chelsea Market tower begins to summon the urban planning object lesson of Midtown's soulless slabs marching up Sixth Avenue. Midtownization seemed to be on the minds of several audience members; it was repeatedly asked just what the project offered a contentedly residential neighborhood aside from 250,000 square feet of un-asked-for Class A office space, above the High Line on Tenth Avenue, and an extraneous 90,000 square foot hotel on Ninth, across the Avenue from both the Maritime and Dream Hotels, and a few blocks north of the Gansevoort and Standard Hotels. Community Board members called the project...profit-driven rather than community-minded."

The preliminary plans unveiled Monday "were severely scrutinized by community members, leaving some worried that Chelsea residents would receive no community benefit from the mammoth project," according to an article by Elizabeth Ladzinski yesterday at DNAinfo.com.

"I find nothing being offered to the community in this process, and that worries me," said Walter Mankoff, a member of CB4, whose sentiment was mirrored by attendees at the crowded meeting, the article said.

"I think the building you're putting on top of Chelsea Market is ugly," said Robert Trentlyon, a member of CB4, whose sentiment was applauded by many in attendance, the article continued, adding that "the hotel building overlooking Ninth Avenue, above Buddakan restaurant, would cater to business travelers and include a rooftop dining experience."

Earlier this year, Jamestown cut a deal to pay more than $225 million to buy out its partners in Chelsea Market, a property whose redevelopment as a specialty-food destination and media mecca played a major role in the meatpacking district's renaissance.

The complex was once owned by the National Biscuit Company, which sold its complex in 1959 to Louis Glickman.

In the 1990's, the investor Irwin B. Cohen organized a syndicate to buy the principal National Biscuit buildings and he and his designers, Vandeberg Architects, created a long interior arcade of food stores, now a well-known destination in west Chelsea.