A three-year fight over the Upper West Side’s controversial 200 Amsterdam condominium tower has come to an end as New York’s highest court rejected an effort by opponents to overturn a ruling that allowed the 52-story tower to stand.
The Appellate Division decision “definitively ends the unwarranted legal challenges” and confirms that permits had been properly issued, said SJP Properties CEO Steven J. Pozycki, developer of the tower. The first resident will move in within weeks, he said.
The battle over 200 Amsterdam had high stakes not just for the project itself but for developments around the city as well. The Municipal Arts Society and the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development filed suit in 2018 claiming the city had wrongfully issued a building permit after SJP Properties cobbled together partial tax lots for the tower.
If successful, their effort would have required the developer to remove several floors from the top of the building that had already been built. SJP paused work on the building as the judge in the case initially ruled in favor of the project’s opponents.
Then, in March, the court’s appellate division overturned that ruling, giving the developer the green light to move ahead unless the Municipal Arts Society could win an appeal.
SJP resumed marketing units for sale in April. Two penthouses are already in contract for $19.3 million and $17.5 million each, according to SJP.