City Board OKs Sutton Place Luxury Apartment Tower

SUTTON PLACE, NY — Developers have won an appeal to continue construction work on a planned 700-foot residential tower in Sutton Place despite a recently-passed rezoning of the neighborhood that curbs high-rise development.

The Board of Standards and Appeals ruled in favor of Gamma Real Estate in a battle against the city and the East River Fifties Alliance, a community group, over its right to continue building a luxury apartment tower on East 58th Street between Sutton Place and First Avenue.

The New York City Council struck down a grandfather clause for the planned development when it passed the East River Fifties Alliance's plan to prevent supertall developments from rising in the small Sutton Place neighborhood from East 51st to 59th streets east of First Avenue.

The alliance's plan implements the "tower-on-a-base" development rules in the neighborhood. The rules require that 45 percent of a new development's floor area be contained below a height of 150 feet. Buildings could still rise above 150 feet, but nearly half of the total density would be at heights that wouldn't be uncharacteristic of the existing neighborhood, according to the plan.

Gamma Real Estate's Jonathan Kalikow has been one of the most outspoken critics of the plan and called it an "illegal spot zoning" when the City Council passed it. After Tuesday's Board of Standards and appeals ruling, Gamma will be able to resume construction.

The East River Fifties Alliance announced Tuesday that they will challenge the Board of Standards and Appeals' ruling in court, signaling that the fight over the East 58th Street development is not over.

“Today’s decision by the Board of Standards and Appeals comes as no surprise. The East River Fifties Alliance will now take the community’s fight against this monstrous, out-of-place mega-tower to the courts and away from a city agency," the group said in a statement.

Photo courtesy East River Fifties Alliance