It’s been a long time since we’ve seen any activity at 183 East Broadway, a stalled construction site which was envisioned as a six-story residential project. But today Lower East Side resident Mitch Weinstein sends along some new photos indicating “something” is happening at this eyesore across from Seward Park.
A check of Buildings Department records shows no recently filed permits. The city put a stop to the project in 2009, finding that the owner, Wai Sun Realty, was in violation of various zoning regulations. After many months of back and forth with city agencies, a revised plan was approved in 2011 and work resumed, but it then came to an abrupt halt.
As you can see from the photos, some work is taking place today on the roof. Whether more substantive construction activity is ahead remains to be seen. We’re making some calls today to find out.
At least they are working on it again :)
The owners and their contractors are among the worst around.
Perhaps people do not remember that, without DOB authorization, the owner had his building demolished overnight. (Maybe this was in 2006 or 2007) I just remember seeing it one day, and then the next morning it was gone! Then, when they were doing new work on the monstrosity-to-be, neighboring buildings had to suffer serious shaking and vibrations.
This place is destined to be yet another Chinatown building made of junk, with an appropriately boring looking exterior.
I just read that Sean Sweeney wrote in his letter to The Villager that Margaret Chin was involved with the owners getting permission to restart their work. Does anyone know if this is true? If so, this is not a positive thing.
Nobody is advocating allowing them to build a “monstrosity.” Just to finish the shell that currently exists and take down the darn shed so that we can have our sidewalk back. They won’t be allowed to build any taller than what’s there now.
Knocking the old building down without permission + rushing to get as much built as possible before the DOB realized its mistake in approving his ridiculous plans = the owner is pretty clearly an asshole. If you told me there was some long-term plan for the city to take away the property from this asshole and do something nice with it, I’d be all ears. But anything short of that is just punishing the rest of us for this guy’s bad behavior.