UWS Synagogue Redevelopment Gets Green Light

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The city Department of Buildings has given developers permission to begin work on the structure of a tower replacing an Upper West Side synagogue. The new luxury apartment building will feature space for the synagogue's congregation.

Developers Landsea Homes and Leyton Properties previously had permits for foundation work at the former site of the congregation Shaare Zedek at 212 W. 93rd St. — located between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue — but were recently awarded full construction permits, a spokeswoman for developers said. Foundation work at the site is already underway.

The new permits will allow developers to begin work on constructing a planned 14-story mixed-use building at the site. The new building will include 20 condo units, along with 15,000-square-foot of space for use by the synagogue on the first three levels of the new tower. Developers hired architect Eran Chen, a founding principal of the firm ODA New York, to design the building.

Apartments at the new building will likely be marketed as luxury homes. With a total of 39,500 square feet to be developed for residential uses, the average apartment will be about 2,821 square feet. About 70 percent of the units will feature private outdoor space and many of the units will be full-floor penthouse-style homes, a developer spokeswoman said.

Congregation Shaare Zedek will occupy the cellar, first and second floors of the new building, according to plans filed with the city DOB. The synagogue will also have access to a terrace on the third story, according to the plans. Congregation officials stated in 2017 before Community Board 7 that the sale and re-development of the synagogue site is necessary to keep the congregation financially afloat. The congregation has since vacated the space and holds services at the nearby Franciscan Community Center on West 97th Street.

An effort by Upper West Side preservationists attempted to landmark the building in 2017 to stop the sale to Leyton Properties, but the city Landmarks Preservation Commission decided not the designate the synagogue.