Quadriad Realty’s controversial plan to build up to three skyscrapers near 192nd Street in Washington Heights is uncertain now that a rival developer has purchased two of the buildings on the proposed site.
HAP Investment Developers’ acquisition of 4452 and 4454 Broadway, the city said, put Quadriad’s plan to secure zoning changes and build the three towers on hold. Until or unless the two developers reach an agreement, the project cannot proceed.
“This is on hold right now, and it has been on hold since June,” Edwin Marshall, Department of City Planning spokesman, told Community Board 12’s land use committee. “You can’t rezone property you don’t own.”
Henry Wollman, Quadriad’s principal, told DNAinfo that he is in talks with HAP about joining forces on the development.
“We are trying to work those issues out with HAP,” Wollman told DNAinfo. “If we can’t, we will simply proceed with one site.”
“HAP Investments purchased the land at 4452 Broadway in April, 2013 and we will be the developer of that site. We have no relationship to Quadriad and will not pursue a rezoning of our site. Our intention is to develop the site at 4452 Broadway ‘as of right ‘ and in accordance with current zoning,” Eran Polack, CEO, HAP Investments, said in a statement to The Real Deal.
The development would be constructed in two phases according to the Quadriad plan, with the first raising two 25- and 28-story buildings north of Gorman Park. But in order to launch that part of the project, structures currently located at 4452 and 4454 Broadway would have to be torn down.
CB 12 voted against the tower plan two years ago, dubbing the structures too high and saying they offer too little affordable housing. According to Quadriad’s latest estimate, 194 of the first phase’s 480 units would include affordable housing.
Whatever the final plan winds up looking like, Wollman told DNAinfo that he hopes to kick off construction in the third quarter of 2014. [DNAinfo] — Julie Strickland