By Gus Saltonstall
In August, West Side Rag reported that a Brooklyn-based real estate firm bought the building housing Gristedes at 500-504 Columbus Avenue, between West 84th and 85th streets. At the time, it was unclear what the developer planned to do with the property.
We got an answer last week at an Upper West Side Community Board 7 Preservation Committee meeting.
A new residential building.
Terra Developers is proposing a 13-story building with 19-family-sized units that would range from three to five bedrooms at 500 Columbus Avenue. The developer would also restore the two 130-year-old buildings that are currently at the address.
Here is what the two buildings look like now.
While Gristedes takes up the entire ground-floor commercial space at the two addresses, there are actually two separate residential buildings above the grocer at 500-504 Columbus Avenue. The building closer to the West 84th Street corner is five stories, while the building to its north is three stories after being cut down and converted to a movie theater in the 1930s.
Importantly, all of the residential units at both of these buildings have been empty since at least the 1990s, according to the developer.
The full scope of the proposed work would be to add a floor to the building closer to 84th Street, add two floors to the three-story building to its north, and then erect the new building on top of the more northern building at the 500-504 Columbus Avenue site that would be set back from the avenue as it went up.
The final product of the new proposed building would be one property with the two original buildings forming the base of the address.
On the topic of Gristedes, what would happen to the popular grocery store if the construction project was approved?
A representative from the project’s architecture firm told the Preservation Committee that negotiations are ongoing to have the supermarket temporarily relocate during the construction period, and then return when the work is done. However, the negotiations are still in the early stages, and the timeline of the entire project remains unclear as approvals for the work remain pending.
Terra Developers had to present its plans for the new building to Manhattan Community Board 7 because 500-504 Columbus Avenue is part of the Upper West Side Historic District, which means the developer will have to get approval from the New York City Landmarks and Preservation Commission.
A group of Upper West Side community members, many of whom live in 102 West 85th Street, which is a 12-story building that sits directly behind the proposed building, spoke in opposition to the project during the public testimony period at the CB7 Preservation Committee meeting on October 8.
“We’re all in a state of shock. The developer went at length to make it very sound and beautiful from the street, nobody is against the facades getting renovated,” one Upper West Sider said, who also mentioned their lines of sight would be blocked, during the meeting. “It was a building falling apart. The problem is that this is all at the expense of 102 West 85th Street.”
Multiple Upper West Siders articulated their worry about the different type of precedents this project might set.
“This is going to start a very dangerous precedent for the Upper West Side Historic District,” a local said. “If we allow this sort of creep to happen on the avenues that are established. This may open some floodgates. The entire neighborhood is at risk because people want to build higher and make a lot of money selling very expensive units that most New Yorkers cannot afford.”
Another member of the public said, “It’s a bad precedent if developers are allowed to tack onto historic buildings.”
In the end, the Community Board 7 Preservation Committee voted in support of the project, which will now go to a vote at the full board meeting on November 4. That vote will then be sent to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to advise its decision.
You can watch the full presentation for yourself below. It begins around the 1-hour, 18-minute mark.
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Love this! Nice to see more family sized units being built. I hope that the Gristedes is replaced with a proper grocery store.
How exactly is this project at the expense of the neighbors at 102 West 85th Street? Construction noise? Sorry we all have to deal with occasional construction noise, otherwise nothing in NYC would ever be fixed or improved
Agree 100%!
I agree. I assume the people at 102 W85 are upset about their views changing. Now they will look straight at the new building instead of a mostly open south view. [This is just a guess though!]
Seems reasonable. No surprise someone on the UWS is opposed though.
If it really fair to call Gristedes popular? It’s more like you shop there because you have no choice.
This is where the landlord held apartments vacant for years?
And the new building will be “luxury” – not affordable?
That is a sad fact of real estate these days. There are ~60,000 apartments (mostly rent-stabilized) sitting vacant because landlords refuse to put them back on the market unless they can charge “free market” rates.
“The entire neighborhood is at risk because people want to build higher and make a lot of money selling very expensive units that most New Yorkers cannot afford.”
What an opportunity for the local opposition to buy other buildings, build lower, and make less money selling cheap apartments that every New Yorker can afford. Please execute! Save the neighborhood from this risk!
It’s great to see someone making use of the space which was vacant for a long time. The comments from the neighbors are the typical NIMBY nonsense that adds to the difficulty of renovation or construction of units in Manhattan. People will resort to any argument to block development, including the all too prevalent appeals to the most NIMBY group of all, the “preservation commission”.
It is unfortunate residents of 102 W85th Street will lose their views, but it has been long established that no one in this town is guaranteed a view.