01LU 0419-2025N 260081 HIMLaid over
Leftcourt Clothing Center
Land-use review
CB Manhattan Community Board 4
Where it standsCB Manhattan Community Board 4 ✓→Committee→Full Council
Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings and Dispositions · Thursday, November 13, 2025
The one where Midtown South building owners showed up to FIGHT the landmark designations they'd been handed
Contents & search
items
8
laid over
8
land-use items
8
affordable
30
CEQR: Other
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Five Midtown South fur-and-fashion-district landmark designations (the 29th Street Towers, Fashion Tower, Furcraft and Leftcourt Clothing Center Art Deco lofts) came back to the subcommittee -- but this time the building owners fought back. Richard Lobel of Sheldon Lobel called the architectural case 'weak' and the buildings 'overbuilt,' Kenneth Lee said the designation makes his family's building '30% more expensive' to work on, and a developer pegged the LPC facade mock-up at nearly $200,000. Sandy Nurse asked for the financial detail in writing. The hearing also advanced a Queens church (Pr
From the room
“a specific initiative encouraging New York City Parks to pursue a new type of ULERP authorization for land acquisition using criteria-based triggers”
— Colleen Alderson
“Histicor Districts Council, New York Landmarks Conservancy, and the Art Deco Society of New York spoke in support of designation. No one spoke in opposition”
— Margaret Herman
“representatives of Community Board 4, New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Historic Districts Council, Ardeca Society of New York, and Save Chelsea spoke in support”
— Margaret Herman
“We opposed the landmark designation of the building. When we purchased the building, its original ground floor had been completely stripped away”
— Kenneth Lee
01
The decisions
802LU 0421-2025C 250297 PCQParks AcquisitionLaid over
Queens CD 3 Walk to Park Site Selection/Acquisition
03LU 0417-2025N 260079 HIMLaid over
Fashion Tower
04LU 0420-2025C 250298 PCKParks AcquisitionLaid over
Brooklyn CD 5 Walk to Park Site Selection/Acquisition
NYC Parks presented its Brooklyn Community District 5 parkland-acquisition criteria, targeting privately owned lots of at least 5,000 square feet in a district that qualifies on a 27.7 poverty rate, and the item drew pointed Council pushback rather than a clean approval. Sandy Nurse objected to a shelter and an industrial-zone site she thought was on Fulton, citing years of work to preserve manufacturing, and argued owners deserved a phone call or in-person visit, not just a letter, for a decision this big, while another member flagged a brand-new car wash right behind their office.
Land-use review
Conditions
- Secondary sites expand options beyond the few primary (vacant) sites.
- 10-year sunset clause
- minimum site size
- post-approval owner notification
05LU 0418-2025N 260080 HIMLaid over
Furcraft Building
06LU 0433-2025N 260045 HNQLaid over
150-20 108 AVENUE
HPD brought a UDAAP to designate an urban development action area and conserve the existing Praise Tabernacle church on Lot 87 in South Jamaica, Queens, the last city-owned remnant of a 1984 in-rem tax foreclosure whose neighboring lots were long ago sold off and rebuilt as homes. Applicant reps walked the subcommittee through the 1940 church's history and its community role, from after-school care and a youth program to weddings, funerals, and meeting space borrowed by outside organizations.
The proposal
Site
150-20 108 AVENUE
District
Land-use review
CEQR: Other
CEQR: Other
CEQR: Other
Properties150-20 108 AVENUE
07LU 0416-2025N 260078 HIMLaid over
29th Street Towers
08LU 0415-2025N 260077 HIMLaid over
Barbey Building
Also in the record
Records not linked to a specific agenda item
Opposition & support
Applicant rep Richard Lobel testified that LPC designation of 135 W 36th St will require a commission-level mock-up and a typical summertime LPC approval delay (consistent with the firm's multi-year LPC filing experience).
Questions & answers
Council Member (subcommittee member, S9): Asked how Parks is thinking about the car-wash candidate site (CD5 Brooklyn) in relationship to two public plazas that are going to be built nearby and a recently renovated playground.
Procedure
- Joint public hearing on LU 415-419 (landmark designations: Barbey Building, 29th Street Towers, Fashion Tower, Furcraft Building, Leftcourt Clothing Center) closed; items laid over. — Sandy Nurse
- Chair confirms no other members of the public wish to testify on the LU 415-419 landmark designation joint hearing before closing it. — Sandy Nurse
- Opens joint public hearing for LU 420 (Brooklyn CD5 site selection/acquisition) and LU 421 (Queens CD3 site selection/acquisition). — Sandy Nurse
- Chair concludes today's business; thanks members of the public, colleagues, subcommittee counsel, land use staff, and the sergeant at arms; meeting hereby adjourned — Sandy Nurse
02
The people
On the dais · 7
Practitioners & applicants
Kenneth Lee · Dan Ruso · Christopher Marte · Duncan Miller
03
The intelligence
Every parcel, owner, and applicant in this meeting, cross-referenced against Zonable’s NYC ownership, enforcement & legislative graph — the record behind the record.
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Owner portfolios, open OATH/ECB violations, 311 & DOB permits across every parcel discussed, developer track records, and an “ask this meeting” chat.