Neighbors win round on Meatpacking hotel
By ANNE BECKER
After months of protesting, Meatpacking District residents have finally settled their beef with the city over a huge luxury hotel.
The Department of Buildings issued a letter yesterday reversing its ruling to allow full-time residents to fill half of a 450-foot-tall hotel proposed at 848 Washington St. - a move neighbors hope will slow the pace of development in the newly chic industrial district.
"This is a stake in the heart of the hotel's plan and a tremendous boost to our efforts to preserve the Meatpacking District," said Andrew Berman, president of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
Since October, the activist group has mobilized unions from across the city to stage protests and bombard city officials with letters claiming new residential development would force local businesses out of the low-rise manufacturing district.
They say the city coached the hotel's developer, Landmark Development, to skirt zoning laws to build residential units in the 10,000-square-foot, $120 million hotel.
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http://www.gvshp.org...i-risepress.htm
Scale model of proposed building complex for Washington St.
in the Meat Market. Stephen Touhey is the developer
and Jean Nouvel is the architect.
Edited by NYguy, 22 April 2004 - 04:09 PM.
