Kramer Levin's Land Use Department Wins Land Use Approvals for Pro Bono Clients in West Harlem & Queens

The Land Use group at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP recently secured approvals for two non-for-profit pro bono clients to develop low income housing and community facilities in West Harlem and Queens:

Broadway Housing Communities Sugar Hill Project

On October 13th, the City Council approved a rezoning and a disposition and acquisition of easements for a site located on West 155th Street between St. Nicholas Avenue and St. Nicholas Place in West Harlem. The client, Broadway Housing Communities, is a New York City non-profit housing developer that has developed more than 300 units of affordable housing in Washington Heights and Harlem. The rezoning and land use approvals will facilitate the development of a 13-story mixed use building, The Sugar Hill Development and Faith Ringgold Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, which is comprised of 124 units of affordable housing, an Early Childhood Center, nonprofit program and office space and below-grade parking.

The Sugar Hill Project is designed by David Adjaye and Saky Yakas.

Valerie G. Campbell, Adam B. Taubman and Elizabeth F. Larsen served as land use and zoning counsel for the Sugar Hill project and Charles S. Warren and Karen Leo Mintzer provided assistance with respect to the project's environmental review.

Hour Children

On September 16, the City Council unanimously approved the rezoning of one and a half blocks in the Ravenswood section of Long Island City, Queens, from an M1-1 manufacturing to an R5-D residential district. This rezoning was needed to allow Hour Children, a 25-year old not-for-profit that provides services to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children, to construct their first new building, an 18-unit supportive living residence. The building, designed by Edelman Sultan Knox Wood/Architects, will also house Hour Children's administrative offices and communal space.

Paul D. Selver and Marcie Kesner represented Hour Children through the City's discretionary land use review process and Karen Leo Mintzer provided assistance with respect to the project's environmental review.