Tall & Urban News

A controversial Upper West Side condo tower has topped out at 52 stories, despite an ongoing legal battle over whether the project violates the city’s zoning resolution.

The 668-foot (204-meter) luxury tower at 200 Amsterdam Avenue reached the construction milestone Wednesday, 14 August, 2019, according to a spokesperson with SJP Properties, which is developing the building in partnership with Mitsui Fudosan. The skyscraper’s decorative crown is expected to be complete in September. The developers also plan to launch sales for its 112 units that month, with prices starting at $2.95 million.

“200 Amsterdam, our prized new development in the heart of Lincoln Square, has reached its top residential floor today (52),” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Construction commenced in the fall of 2017 and has continued unabated since. We look forward to officially launching sales also, this September.”

The building, which is located on a 39-sided zoning lot between 67th and 68th streets, has faced intense scrutiny from preservationists and elected officials who argue that the property was erected on an unlawfully crafted, “gerrymandered” lot.

Initially, the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) green-lit plans for the building in 2018. After a legal challenge was brought forward by the Municipal Arts Society (MAS) and the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, a Supreme Court judge mandated the BSA to conduct a reevaluation.

But the board again gave the project the go-ahead in a move Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer blasted as “astounding.” Local City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal and State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal are also bewildered by the city’s maintained support of the tower and join advocates in their push against the project.

Opponents filed a new Article 78 challenge against the development in July, 2019.

“The BSA’s continued refusal to listen to reason has forced us to return to the State Supreme Court on an issue that should be a matter of common sense,” Elizabeth Goldstein, the president of MAS, said in a statement at the time.

MAS hopes Manhattan Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry, who ordered the project back to the BSA for reconsideration in March, will overrule the BSA’s decisions and ultimately nullify the project’s approval, though the petition could result in the plan yet again being kicked back to the BSA for a third round of reviews, Rachel Mazur, an attorney representing MAS, told Curbed in July.

200 Amsterdam Avenue was originally set to become the tallest building on the Upper West Side. Now, that title will fall to Extell Development’s 775-foot (236-meter) 50 West 66th Street development, which is experiencing its own set of challenges from community advocates and local elected officials.

For more on this story, go to Curbed.