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New York
Building Conversion in Jeopardy
LANDMARKS COMMISSION CONSIDERING BROOKLYN PROPERTY
By JULIE SATOW Staff Reporter of the Sun
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The Landmarks Preservation Commission could throw a wrench into a developer's plan to convert a warehouse on the Williamsburg waterfront into condominiums.
The New York Sun has learned that Landmarks might take a formal look at the former Austin-Nichols Warehouse at 184 Kent Ave. with the possibility of declaring it a landmark.
The Cass Gilbert-designed building, circa 1913, peers over the East River to offer arresting views of the Manhattan skyline. The building, made of reinforced concrete, is a lesser-known structure by the famed American architect who also designed the Woolworth Building in Manhattan and the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.
Developer Moishe Kestenbaum, who converted the building into rental apartments in 2000, will present his case to transform the 72-unit building into 256 condos at a public hearing at the Board of Standards and Appeals today.
The Williamsburg waterfront is bracing for a rezoning to create more residential development later this summer, and some observers say the impending rezoning could pressure Landmarks and the BSA to prompt a decision on the property before the rezoning takes hold.
''The Bloomberg administration will want [Landmarks and BSA] to clear up any issues in the area before the rezoning is set to start,'' said a spokesman for City Council Member David Yassky, Evan Thies.
Mr.Yassky, who represents the area, brokered a deal with Mr. Kestenbaum for him to donate $355,000 to a fund for affordable housing in exchange for the changes.
''These proposals go back a year, and at the time no one realized the building was a potential landmark,'' Mr. Theis said. ''The Landmarks development could change things.''
Community Board 1 voted 24 to 14 against Kestenbaum's plan.
The BSA has approved one amendment to Mr. Kestenbaum's 2000 variance, allowing two additional stories to be built atop the six-story building and for a central atrium to be enlarged.
Mr. Kestenbaum wants to build another two stories, bringing the total to 10, and turn the rental units into sales.
According to the plan submitted to the BSA, prices will range from close to $400,000 for a 700-square foot studio to $1.4 million for a three-bedroom.
The BSA will postpone making a decision on the amendment until Landmarks has decided whether to schedule the property for further review,said sources. ''Landmarks knows about the BSA's timeline and the BSA is aware of what they are doing,'' one city official said. A spokesman for the landmarks commission would not comment.
''I don't have any definitive answer from Landmarks yet. I've been told they are checking it out, but as far as we're concerned we are going ahead with the hearing and business as usual,'' Mr. Ketsenbaum's lawyer, Howard Hornstein, said.
The six-story building ''is one of the most important industrial buildings in the city and a great work by one of the country's most important architects,'' said the deputy director of the Historic District Council, Jay Platt, who called the design ''groundbreaking.''
The building exemplifies ''the combination of functionality and aesthetics that became a hallmark of the modern movement in architecture,'' the group wrote in a recent newsletter. ''Its bold form, which brings an unusually streamlined Egyptian Revival character to the boxiness typically used for industrial designs, creates a sense of monumentality that is clearly evident even when seen from across the river in Manhattan.''
If the BSA variance is granted, ''a hulking superstructure'' will be built on the Manhattan-facing side of the roof. ''These luxury penthouses would overwhelm the building's simple elegance and destroy the intent of Gilbert's carefully composed design,'' Mr. Platt said.
In addition to the possible hurdle posed by Landmarks, angry tenants are also challenging the proposed changes, saying the conversion to condos will price out the building's 200 tenants.
Although the building's rental units are market-value, with some rents as high as $2,200 a month, many tenants live together and split the monthly charges. This would no longer be possible if the conversion is approved, said Peter Gillespie, the executive director of NAG, a local Williamsburg community group.


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