A few changes will soon be taking place around the city. From acquiring land to restoring landmark buildings, here are a few of the changes you can expect to see.
City Acquires Last Part of Bushwick Inlet Park
Following a bitter back and forth battle between the developer and site owner, the contested CitiStorage site needed to complete plans for the Bushwick Inlet Park has finally been acquired by the city for $160 million. The acquisition of the 11-acre site will allow the city to finally make good on the Bloomberg-era promise to bring a 28-acre park to the waterfront area of Williamsburg.
Following a fire that burned the CitiStorage warehouse to the ground in January 2015, the city began negotiations with the site’s owner. The city offered $100 million in June while the owner was reportedly seeking between $250 and $500 for the property. Meanwhile, the assessed value of the property was somewhere between $120 and $180 million. Park advocates, including senators and councilmen, then called for the city to acquire the land via eminent domain.
Alexander Hamilton Jr.’s House to be Restored
After being purchased by a real estate developer for $10 million earlier this year, Alexander Hamilton Jr.’s East Village house is set to be restored after receiving approval by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Located at 4 St. Mark’s Place in the East Village, the home was built in 1831 by a real estate developer before being sold to Alexander Hamilton, Jr. in 1833. The family sold the building ten years later, after which many changes were made to the building. This included adding a rear addition and removing the balcony on the first floor. The balcony has since been recreated.
Over the years, the building has served as the home to movie theaters as well as residential and commercial space. The punk rock shop Trash & Vaudeville was in the building for 40 years before moving to a new location earlier this year.
While the LPS was not on board with some of the proposed changes, they did approve restoring the façade. The Commission also approved some changes to the building’s entrance, such as installing new windows, constructing a curved balcony on the first floor, removing the gate at the stop and removing the additional staircase that connects to the first floor. The Commission also approved demolishing and reconstructing a rear addition.
Residential Tower Replacing Roseland Ballroom
The once beloved Roseland Ballroom is no longer in existence, but construction of the massive residential building scheduled to replace it is well underway. In fact, the building has enjoyed significant progress toward completion in recent months. When complete, the building will stand 62 stories tall and will house 426 apartments offering an average of 1,024-square-feet of living space. There are also plans for 16,514-square-feet of retail space at the ground floor level. Construction on the project, which is located a 242 West 53rd Street, is expected to be completed in 2018.