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Proposed 1,000-foot-tall apartment tower in lower Manhattan put on hold

The Department of City Planning has put the brakes on a nearly 1,000-foot-tall apartment tower in lower Manhattan.

In a letter written last month, the department alerted JDS Development that it will not approve plans that would allow the builder to construct an 80-story rental building at 80 Rutgers Slip, on the corner of Cherry Street, until a lawsuit involving a neighboring site is resolved.

"It has come to our attention that rights to use the floor area required for this project is in dispute," wrote Edith Hsu-Chen, the director of City Planning's Manhattan office, in a letter to Michael Stern, the chief executive of JDS.

Hsu-Chen said that JDS' application for a minor modification to a previously approved neighborhood redevelopment plan would be placed "on hold" until pending litigation is resolved.

Developers Gary Spindler and Roy Schoenberg are suing nonprofits Settlement Housing Fund and Two Bridges Neighborhood Council for backing out of their deal to sell to them 235 Cherry St., a site adjacent to JDS' project. Instead, Settlement Housing Fund and Two Bridges Neighborhood Council worked out a separate deal to sell development rights from 235 Cherry St. to JDS. The extra rights would allow JDS to build its 500,000-square-foot tower at 80 Rutgers Slip.

Attorneys from Herrick Feinstein, the law firm representing Spindler and Schoenberg in the suit, said the deal with JDS would deprive Spindler and Schoenberg of the development rights they need for the roughly 300,000-square-foot mixed-use project they are planning at 235 Cherry St. JDS' project, a skyscraper propped on stilts that would literally sit above an existing 10-story apartment building, would cantilever over 235 Cherry.

JDS is not named in the litigation, but Raymond Hannigan, an attorney at Herrick said that Spindler and Schoenberg are "examining all of our rights respecting JDS and these latest developments. Our purpose is to enforce the sale contract and enforce the development rights."

In April, Settlement Housing's chief executive, Alexa Sewell, reportedly said she was "100% certain" that the organization and Two Bridges would win the suit brought by Spindler and Schoenberg.

"We are working to clear up any questions and are confident both that the application will move forward consistent with DCP procedures and that the pending litigation will be resolved in our favor," said a Settlement Housing Fund spokesperson.

The letter from City Planning is the latest action taken by New York to stop or delay construction of a tall residential tower. The city Department of Buildings stopped work on a midtown project planned by developer Fosun and an ultra-luxury tower planned by DDG on the Upper East Side.

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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...nhattan-put-on