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20-Story Apartment Building Planned for East 21st Street in Gramercy

By Noah Hurowitz | March 14, 2016 1:57pm
 The developer who bought the building formerly home to Plug Uglies is planning a 20-story residential building on the site, according to Department of Buildings permits.
The developer who bought the building formerly home to Plug Uglies is planning a 20-story residential building on the site, according to Department of Buildings permits.
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DNAInfo/Noah Hurowitz

GRAMERCY — The owner of a cluster of properties along Third Avenue has plans to build a 20-story residential building in their place, according to permits filed with the city.

Alfa Development filed plans on Friday for a 20-story, 65-unit residential building with ground-floor retail that will take the place of four buildings at 253-261 Third Ave., between East 20th and East 21st streets, according to Department of Buildings records.

The structure is expected to have about 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, with apartments or condos beginning on the second floor, according to the permit.

Amenities will include a lounge and fitness studio on the second floor, a pair of private terraces attached to apartments on the third floor and a penthouse topping off the building on the 20th floor, DOB records show.

“There’s a really exciting historical aspect to the neighborhood and it’s just steps away from the [Gramercy] Park,” Alfa's executive vice president Matthew Namer said. 

“While having a rich history and a wonderful neighborhood feel, its proximity to Union Square, Midtown and the Village make it a really great location.”

Alfa bought the row of walkups last summer for nearly $70 million, taking the parcel off the hands of Apex Development, which had bought up the properties as part of an earlier plan to build affordable housing at the site, according to The Real Deal.

Several longtime neighborhood businesses have closed up shop or moved as the properties have passed from one owner to another over the years.

An outpost of the popular Brooklyn sandwich shop Defonte’s shut down in 2014 after five years on the corner of East 21st Street, while Plug Uglies moved across the street after 20 years in its spot at 257 Third Ave.

The city signed off on demolition permits for the buildings last year, records show, and contractors have finished tearing down 253-255 Third Ave, Namer said.