Developer Blocked in Bid To Build Unaffiliated Dorm

By BENJAMIN SARLIN, Special to the Sun
March 26, 2008

The city can legally deny developer Gregg Singer a permit to build a student dormitory in the East Village on the basis that he does not have an educational institution lined up to use the facility, the New York State Court of Appeals has ruled.

In the ruling yesterday, the court wrote that if the dormitory were completed and no school leased its space, the city would be unnecessarily forced to either allow Mr. Singer to use it for other purposes or require it to be torn down or left vacant. The 7–0 decision overturned a ruling by a lower appellate court.

The long-standing dispute involves the former home of P.S. 64, on East 9th Street between avenues B and C, which Mr. Singer purchased from the city in 1998 for $3.1 million.

Community groups protested the developer's plans to build a 19-story student dorm on the site, saying it was an attempt to illegally build luxury housing. In 2004, the city's Department of Buildings rejected Mr. Singer's application to build the dormitory, saying the building needed to be affiliated with a specific academic institution beforehand. A state court upheld the city's decision in 2006, but last year an appellate court sided with Mr. Singer. Yesterday's decision, by the state's highest court, reversed the 2007 ruling.

In 2006, the city declared the building a landmark based on its distinctive early-20th-century architecture. In response, Mr. Singer destroyed parts of the building's façade, which he said would bolster his case to reverse the decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Mr. Singer is suing the city for $100 million, saying Mayor Bloomberg blocked the site's development as part of a scheme to gain a political endorsement in the 2005 mayoral election.

The developer did not return a request for comment last night.