Plans Filed For 7-Story Building On Vacant Inwood Lot

INWOOD, NY — Developers have filed plans with the city Department of Buildings to construct a seven-story apartment building on a vacant Inwood lot.

The new development at 112 Seaman Ave., located between West 204th Street and Payson Avenue will rise 83-feet-tall and contain 27 apartments, according to building plans. The site was once occupied by twin three-story homes, an oddity for a neighborhood made up mostly of tenement-style buildings.

Landowner Mike Saab applied for a spot upzoning at the site in 2017, but his application was eventually rejected. The upzoning would have allowed Saab to develop a nine-story building with nine apartments offered at below-market rates under the city Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law, a lawyer representing Saab said at a 2017 community board meeting.

Critics of the application cited that spot rezonings set a bad precedent and took fault with the application's upzoning of two nearby buildings with large amounts of rent-stabilized apartments. Current building plans for the site are as-of-right, which means developers aren't required to include any below-market apartments.

The area was eventually rezoned for R7A regulations in a 2018 city rezoning that spanned most of the Inwood neighborhood. The R7A regulations — which caps most buildings at 8 stories — were extended to parts of the neighborhood west of 10th Avenue. The move was largely a concession to vocal critics of the rezoning plan, who feared upzonings in largely vacant and industrial areas west of 10th Avenue would disrupt the existing residential neighborhood character east of 10th Avenue.