City’s Bike Lane Marathon 03, 05
West Side Vintage Poster Gallery 12
Mummenschanz, Again! 14
KAVANAUGH PICK STIRS CONCERN
Photo by Dusica Sue Malesevic
Cathy Levan in front of her apartment building last summer.
Court, Fines Fail to Bring Landlord to Heel BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC The repairs are still not done. The city has levied fines and charges that total more than $151,000, a Housing Court judge mandated seven months ago that repairs be completed within 30 days, and yet longtime tenant Cathy Levan is still waiting for her home to be habitable. “It’s been such a whirlwind of nothing and everything,” Levan said. For 17 years, Levan was happy with her one-bedroom apartment at 940 First Ave. between E. 51st and 52nd Sts. When she moved there in 1998, the street-level storefront was a bustling fish market, the units above were filled with tenants who had lived there for decades, and the building was family-owned. Things were upended in July 2015, when the building changed hands, city property records show, and First Avenue Realty Holdings LP brought the property. Cheskel Strulovitch became the new owner. By September, applications were filed with the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) to turn the four-story property into a 14-story, 13-unit building, according to news reports. Meanwhile, Levan said conditions in the building started to deteriorate. By November, Levan took Strulovitch to Housing LANDLORD continued on p. 4
July 12 - July 25, 2018 | Vol. 04 No. 14
Page 16 Photo courtesy of WH.GOV
ST. BART’S AIR RIGHTS FUEL JPMORGAN MEGATOWER BY SYDNEY PEREIRA JPMorgan Chase & Co. is expected to buy 50,000 square feet of development air rights from Midtown’s St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church — with the option to purchase another 505,000 square feet. The deal comes several months after the company announced it would be demolishing its 52-story building at 270 Park Ave. and replacing it with one projected to rise some 75 stories. “This agreement supports our strong commitment to long-term mission and ministry by helping fund the preservation and maintenance of our extraordinary church home,” the Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe said in a public statement to the parish, whose home is a landmarked Byzantine Revival structure built in 1917. “It is important to remember that proceeds from these transactions will not be sufficient for all repairs and restorations needed, nor can they be used to fund parish programs and ministries, which continue to rely on your generous stewardship giving.” In March, the New York Times reported that Grand Central, another landmarked building, was selling 680,000 square feet of air rights to JPMorgan. The additional air rights from St. Bart’s, and possibly a handful of other religious institutions as reported
by the Times, are expected to secure enough development rights to build a 1,200-foot-tall skyscraper. The Times reported the building could cost $4 billion. Under the terms of the St. Bart’s deal, JPMorgan will spend a total of $20.7 million, which includes $15.6 million for the 50,000 square feet of air rights, $3 million for the option to purchase the 505,000 square feet of additional air rights, and $2 million in closing costs, according to court records. Twenty percent of JPMorgan’s outlay, or $3.1 million, will go into a “public realm infrastructure fund,” which is required under the Greater East Midtown rezoning. The fund is used to improve public infrastructure in the neighborhood to mitigate the impacts of more people and traffic in the area. The rezoning passed last year altered how development rights could be transferred, allowing for taller buildings while also bolstering the preservation of landmarked buildings permitted to sell their air rights in a stretch covering much of the area from 39th to 57th Sts. between Second and Fifth Aves. JPMorgan declined to comment for this article, but a source with knowledge of the deal said it’s unlikeJPMORGAN continued on p. 23
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