See that orange stuff? That’s the scaffolding and mesh that architects use to show the visual effect of new penthouses proposed for the Apthorp. Photo by Richard A. Weinstein.
The owners of the Apthorp on 79th and Broadway are proposing to place new luxury apartments on the roof of the historic building, and the first meeting about the proposal is set for Monday. To prepare for the meetings ahead, the owners set up scaffolding and wrapped it in orange to allow neighbors to see the visual effect of the proposed addition (the actual building material used won’t be orange, but it at least gives a sense of height).
The rooftop additions are clearly a gambit to make the building more profitable — there’s little doubt that they’d sell for upwards of $15 million each.
But adding anything to the historic property — one of the three or four most famous apartment buildings in the neighborhood — will be an uphill battle. The tipster who went to a meeting about it last week sent the following summary:
“West End Preservation had their annual meeting earlier this week. The Apthorp’s penthouses were a major topic. Tenants and organizers from the building as well as Mark Diller, Chair of CB7, spoke at great length about it. It has many interesting details, because the proposed penthouses will fully enclose the arcades that you can now see at the roofline. Also their courtyard happens to be landmarked, and there is concern about shadows. There’s much much more to say, but I was just in the audience.”
The landmarked 12-story building is one of the grand dames of the Upper West Side — it was built in 1908 and has housed hundreds of wealthy and lucky Upper West Siders since. Of the 154 apartments, 67 are rent-stabilized.
The building has been owned by a veritable parade of money-men, lenders, and diamond merchants, all of whom thought they could turn a nice profit. But that has proven extremely tricky, and the building has been the subject of consistent lawsuits. A mezzanine lender called Area Property Partners took control of the property most recently, the Real Deal reported. There have been too many fights involving owners, tenants, attorneys general and other politicians to mention. One of the most recent owners, Maurice Mann, said of the building: “It’s a tragedy and a great iconic building that was destroyed by greed.”
A New York magazine story a few years back about the building indicated that the owners had been discussing building on the roof when they decided to turn the rentals into condos. The “red herring” in this case is an offering for a condo conversion.
The red herring makes oblique references to the fate of the Apthorp’s roof: “The Building presently includes approximately 50,508 square feet of unused Development Rights and Sponsor is considering the construction of penthouses on the roof of the Building,” reads the section entitled “Special Risks to Be Considered by Purchasers.” The included property description by Design Profile Inc., an architecture consulting firm, is even more cryptic: “According to the management the replacement of the entire roof with new is seriously in the agenda.” Another top-floor tenant, who rents at market rate, says Herbitter “made it very clear” her options were to buy in or get out once her two-year lease is up next April. I asked Mann and Herbitter what their designs on the Apthorp roof were. Mann’s answer would hardly comfort Robbins: “We’re exploring options. Nothing has been finalized. They can read what they want into that.” The elevator guy had his own take. “They’re gonna put a pool on the roof,” he informed me, and cracked up.
The meeting about the proposal is at 6:30 p.m. on Monday night at the Community Board office, 250 West 87th Street.
A rendering of the rooftop apartments.
While there may be varied opinions on the esthetics of adding penthouses to the roof – it seems fair to say in this case the visual impact to the neighborhood is likely minimal. If building code and other regulations are met – well – the property does belong to the Condo Association and the Board of Managers can choose to do what they, in their Business Judgment choose.
The real issue here, in my mind at least, is that building on the roof of a structure not originally designed for it – be it roof deck or additional floors – turns out badly way to often. A very recent example is 201 West 90th Street (the old Saigon Grill building). During the housing boom the building owner apparently decided to construct a multi-story condo atop that pre-war rent stabilized apartment building. Following completion of construction, a new sidewalk bridge and scaffolding encircled the building from 2008 to 2013 – yup, years – while they fixed and re-fixed whatever was wrong with the new building construction. Owners and renters had scaffolding and netting outside their windows forever. The scaffolding only came down this past spring.
More than the neighborhood being concerned about the added structure – the existing unit owners should be very wary of this type of project. It is not going to be as painless as you might be led to think. I bet a construction engineer would not tell you something different by his second martini.
Thanks Ken I was wondering how and when the monstrosity above 201 West 90th was built. It looks terrible yet the apartments are selling for a lot of money!
This is really a criminal act!
How so EX007?
The criminals here are the wealthy rent regulated tenants who break the laws by hiding income to maintain a “subsidized” lifestyle. EX007 is just one of these such renters. His car bears that vanity tag and he makes the most noise of them all. While this may sound like a jealous “rant” it is just my opinion and as an owner, I would assume that I contributed to his subsidy.
The criminals here are the wealthy rent regulated tenant, who break the laws by hiding income to maintain a “subsidized” lifestyle. EX007 is just one of these such renters. His car bears that vanity tag and he makes the most noise of them all. While this may sound like a jealous “rant” it is just my opinion and as an owner, I would assume that I contributed to his subsidy.
regarding “subsidies”:
in most cases, it is condo and coop owners who receive the largest government subsidies. the largest housing subsidy of them all is, of course, the mortgage interest deduction, and the larger your mortgage — up to $1 mil — the larger the deduction. you can even take this on a second home! In addition, owners receive bountiful city tax subsidies that get reflected in lower property taxes and often lower common charges.
just sayin’…