By Gus Saltonstall
A battle is brewing over the possibility of a bank opening within a long-vacant commercial space that is part of a famous Upper West Side building.
The Belnord, which occupies a full block from Broadway to Amsterdam between West 86th and 87th streets, is attempting to open a bank within its commercial space at 2360 Broadway. The storefront has been vacant since 2012.
For the proposed bank to take over the storefront, though, the City Planning Commission needs to grant special authorization to allow the business to open with far more street frontage — the width of a business along one block — than what is allowed under current zoning laws.
In 2012, Councilmember Gale Brewer led a push to pass the Special Enhanced Commercial District Upper West Side Neighborhood Retail Street rezoning, which states that “new and expanding banks and loan offices shall not exceed 25 feet in width at street level.”
The incoming and proposed 4,639-square-foot bank would have a street-frontage width of 46 feet and three inches, nearly double what is allowed by the law.
Exceptions to the Rule
The City Planning Commission (CPC) can grant exceptions to this zoning law if certain conditions are met. One of those conditions, is if a proposed location for a new bank has a certain number of vacant storefronts near the address.
Earlier this month, a representative for Belnord Retail LLC went in front of the CPC to petition the agency to grant the new bank an exception for exactly that reason: a high ground-floor vacancy rate “within a reasonable distance of the proposed” 2360 Broadway location.
After hearing the presentation, the CPC said it would schedule the matter for a vote.
Brewer penned a letter to the CPC on Tuesday urging the commission not to grant the exception.
“I feel strongly that CPC should not vote to grant an exemption and set a precedent for other landlords to break the law,” Brewer wrote. “The purpose of the zoning is to make the streetscape interesting with active commercial properties lining the streets. This bank space could be occupied by any other kind of commercial enterprise, just not a bank!”
“This application presents a deeply concerning precedent whereby commercial spaces can be left vacant for long periods of time (while pursuing hefty rent projections by their banks), and for owners to then use that vacant period as proof positive for meriting the return to banks and large frontages that West Siders rejected as misshaping their neighborhood not too long ago,” Brewer added.
When the rezoning was passed 13 years ago, Upper West Side Community Board 7, which voted at the beginning of this summer to unanimously recommend approval for the larger-than-allowed bank to open in The Belnord, helped decide that a 15-percent retail vacancy rate within a “reasonable distance” of a proposed storefront would satisfy justification for an exception to the maximum street frontage of a new business.
The term “reasonable distance,” and the “15-percent” figure were never written into law, however, meaning they remain open to interpretation.
The applicant petitioning for the new bank argued that there is a 26-percent vacancy rate within 600 feet, or slightly over two blocks, of the storefront on Broadway between West 86th and 87th Streets. Brewer countered this by saying 600 feet was an “insufficient study area,” especially when The Belnord takes up a large part of the stretch.
The reason for the rezoning in 2012 was that large storefronts were changing the overall makeup of the Upper West Side, Brewer and other community members contended, and that the local streetscape would benefit more from multiple smaller stores operating along a block.
Extell Development, which owns The Belnord, did not immediately return West Side Rag’s request for comment, but the City Planning Commission did get back to us.
“The City Planning Commission strongly takes into consideration all elected and public testimony related to a land use proposal before making its decision,” a spokesperson from the agency wrote in an email. “Since there is no deadline for this application, the Commission will postpone its vote to review the Councilmember’s request.”
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Finally something to go in the empty Banana Republic pace.
Wait The Gap closed 12 years ago? Wow
What is it, 2009?
No more bank branches
Gale’s legacy at work. Who cares if a bank takes over an entire block frontage, when the alternative might be (is) smoke shops and plywood blight?!
15%,,,600 feet…what a load of nonsense. Who cares?! The whole city is full of empty storefronts for ANY small business to reasonably find a space, if their business plan is sound.
This is what overregulation looks like.
If there is a bad idea on the UWS in this case the “Special Enhanced Commercial District Upper West Side Neighborhood Retail Street rezoning,” chances are Gale Brewer has something to do with it.
The Belnord’s sister building, The Apthorp, has had a bank on the northern half of its Broadway frontage since it was built in 1909. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1991/03/10/085191.html?pageNumber=232
I think the Apthorp is a pretty attractive building even if Gale Brewer finds it such a drag on the neighborhood that it should be illegal.
The proliferation of banks, Duane Reades and big-box retailers on the UWS has been reversed since that 2012 rezoning (although other factors have also contributed to the reversal), and the case for an exception here seems quite weak.
Both sides of Broadway one block south are pretty much fully occupied by a variety of shops (pizza, bagels, coffee, a mom-and-pop pharmacy, a grocery store, a shoe repair shop, a sit-down restaurant, etc.), so it strains credulity to argue that the Belnord space can’t be leased to anything but a single mega-tenant.
Put more affordable child care centers in these vacant spaces.
Exhibit # 1 billion on why NYC zoning is broken and dumb…
Has Brewer found the money to save West Park Presbyterian Church yet? It’s only been 15 years.
I hope it’s an illegal pot megastore. Or a can recycling center. Or maybe the proposed e-bike rest area on west 72 can go here? All the things that add such vibrancy to Gale’s UWS
The city gets in its own way many times with these ridiculous rules. You want tax revenue from non-weed shops? Let the bank move forward…
The law is pre Amazon – when there were plenty of retailers around to fill spaces like this. The reality is now there are not. And as posted elsewhere the likely alternative is a weed shop. Maybe it’s time for the law to be updated.
This is regulation is simply not in sync with the times.