Developers Given Greenlight For Large UWS Condo Building

Mitsui Fudosan and SJP Properties can move forward with their condominium development on Amsterdam Avenue after the Board of Standards and Appeals found they were not in breach of zoning rules.

The developers are planning a 668-foot-tall tower at 200 Amsterdam Ave., The Real Deal reports, but development was held up by a community committee that claimed it should never have been approved because it merged different tax lots.

The Committee for Environmentally Sound Development had sought to challenge the approval and sued to stop construction. SJP and Mitsui Fudosan continued work at the site, but agreed not to use the building status as a way of convincing the BSA to allow the project to go ahead.

“Throughout an exhaustive DOB audit and subsequent BSA review, we have consistently demonstrated that 200 Amsterdam was meticulously designed in strict accordance to the NYC zoning code,” a representative for the developers said in a statement to TRD. “The BSA’s decision today is further validation that this building fully conforms with all requirements.”

The decision comes less than a month after the BSA gave its approval to Gamma Real Estate’s 64-story condo tower on the Upper East Side.

Last year, the city rezoned 10 blocks of the Upper East Side that would restrict the height of Gamma’s project at 428-432 East 58th St., called Sutton 58. However, the BSA ruled in June that the rezoning in the area should not apply to the project.

"The gerrymandered building lot at 200 Amsterdam Ave. is an affront to the spirit and the letter of our zoning code,” a representative for the Municipal Art Society, which joined the committee for the lawsuit, said in a statement to TRD. “We intend to continue fighting on behalf of neighborhoods across the five boroughs threatened by this dangerous precedent.”