205 Parkside to Become "Apartment Hotel"

The Q at Parkside has a big scoop about the persistent eyesore and dilapidated rathole at 205 Parkside: The Department of Buildings gave approval for the conversion of the building to a 19 unit "apartment hotel." I'm not sure what this means, exactly, but it appears to be a loophole dodge as it will not require the zoning change that a hotel would have necessitated.

An apartment hotel, as you'd expect is something of a tweener: no leases, relatively short-term stays, and a working lobby that handles the reservations. In New York, to qualify as an apartment hotel, the building must "primarily" provide units for permanent occupancy, defined as a minimum 30-day stay. There are, generally speaking, two types of buildings that fall into this category: corporate lodging and SROs. Since PLG seems a bit too far removed from Wall Street to be a likely candidate for upscale corporate housing - and the reputation of these landlords belies such a lofty goal - let's take a look at the SRO side of the equation.

I don't want to immediately conflate SRO housing with anything nefarious. In keeping with our generally pro-Providence-House position, low- and moderate-income housing is a serious issue and SRO housing can be a reasonable way to meet that demand. Seeing the bright side of SRO housing requires an assumption of good faith on the part of the developer. The reputation of Providence House leads us to support that project; the reputation of Moses Fried makes me wary about this project. A person who wanted to open a transient hotel (read: whorehouse) is not the person I trust to lead a responsible low-income housing developement.

I became even more wary after finding this opinion, from last year, which essentially says that even an SRO doesn't have to rent all of its units on a long-term basis, only that it has to be, as noted above, "primarily" long-term rentals. That leads me to believe that - unless Fried has learned his lesson from 2006 - some of the units will be held back to be rented out on a per-sex-act basis until the cops shutter the place.

The Q at Parkside's Clarkson FlatBed is trying to round up a posse to meet with CB9. I think this is an excellent idea. The last thing our neighborhood needs is a hot-sheet hotel and if the developers know that we are all watching they are more likely to stay on the right side of the law.

Comments

[pep]

I do not trust this.

[Bob Marvin]

There is a sign posted on the scaffolding around this building stating that the owner is NYC HPD (although this change of ownership doesn't show up at all on the Dept.of Finance website). If Fried, et al, are really no longer the owners, this would seem to indicate that we no longer need to worry about a brothel being built at 205 Parkside. Am I being too optimistic here? Is the sign another joke, like the free :ror sale" ads a few months ago?

[carrie]

Yeah, Bob, I looked into that HPD sign a bit after you mentioned it the other day, but both HPD and DOB records show that the building hasn't changed ownership. (Drat!)

[Tim]

[Same owners. It took them three years to get the permits to start the work. We'll need a meeting with them to go beyond hypothesizing. I just got this from our Community Board, detailing the history, and why our approval is not needed:]

"The building is being developed with the same number of existing units so there is no need for a variance, hence no need for CB input.

The previous request for a variance was for increasing the bulk of the building to 24 apartments which was denied by CB9 and the Board of Standards and Appeals."


Pearl R. Miles-Lee
District Manager
NYC Community Board 9

[Dan]

I think the chances that this will become a problematic addition to the neighborhood are high.

[plgrez]

ok... so approval from CB9 is not required, but does that preclude them from watching out for the neighborhood's welfare in general? are they still able (or willing) to intervene?

this is crazy. this landlord was already busted for running a whore house, he should not be trusted to run what could end up being a transient facility.

if someone posts this development to brownstoner, it will get a lot of attention and likely be stopped.

[babs]

It is on Brownstoner:http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/10/sucks_for_plg.php. Posted today at 9 am, linking to Q at Parkside.

[Sharon]

I don't care what the work permit says. About two months ago I saw three men hauling a stack of mattresses into the building. Odd, given that it is nowhere near completed. So it seems likely that ye old "apartment hotel" is already in business.

[babs]

From the Bedbug Registry: "There are no bedbug encounters on record for this address." Yet!

[Bob Marvin]

Babs,

I doubt that squatters file bedbug reports.

[babs]

That's why I said "yet" - if and when they do actually open for "legitimate" business, I'm sure there will be lots of them.