Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Plan For Lavish 7-story Home on 21st Street Moves Forward With New Owners

By Noah Hurowitz | October 21, 2016 5:25pm | Updated on October 24, 2016 8:38am
 A rendering shows the building planned for 34 W. 21st St. (third from right), which will be a single-family home with seven stories.
A rendering shows the building planned for 34 W. 21st St. (third from right), which will be a single-family home with seven stories.
View Full Caption
Community Board 5/Karl Fischer Architect

FLATIRON — The new owner of a narrow lot on 21st Street is pushing forward with its predecessor's plan to build an opulent, seven-story, single-family mansion on the property with two terraces, a gym and a sauna.

The 34 W. 21st St. lot between Fifth and Sixth avenues was purchased by Long Island Developer Hesky Haim in August, inheriting plans for the ultra-luxe home from its previous owner Skyway Development Group, who introduced the plan in 2014.

Neither the plans nor the architect for the project have appeared to change with the new owners. Architecture firm Karl Fischer presented the proposal to Community Board 5, and the full board voted to approve it on Oct. 13.

The single-family building would stand six-stories tall plus a roof terrace, and include eight bathrooms, four bedrooms, two hot rubs, a sauna, a garage, an elevator, and a gym, according to plans from Karl Fischer.

Other features include a second-floor dining room, a third-floor den, and a balcony on the third floor overlooking an airy kitchen, and an open-air terrace on the second floor in the rear of the building, the plans show.

The proposal presented to the board matched the ones posted on Skyway's website.

The lot is located in the Ladies Mile Historic District and requires approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Haim has filed its proposal to LPC, but no hearing date has yet been set according to an agency spokeswoman, and no permits have been filed for the building, Department of Buildings records show.

The stamp of approval from CB5 is the first progress made on the project in two years.

Skyway Development first announced its plan for the mini-mansion in 2014. The project appeared to have stalled since then until the lot was sold to Hesky Haim for $4.2 million this summer, according to Department of Buildings records.

Haim did not respond to a request for comment, and a phone number for Skyway was no longer in service.

Fischer — who is better known for its design of large condo buildings in Williamsburg and was once nominated for the dubious honor of New York's "most loathed architect" — did not respond to a request for comment.