After penthouse built too big, DeNiro's hotel up for review

By Matt Dunning
POSTED JUNE 13, 2008

Robert DeNiro and partners still have a ways to go, but they cleared an important hurdle June 12 in their efforts to legalize unapproved construction of a lush penthouse on their new Downtown Hotel.

In 2004, city agencies and Community Board 1 members signed off on plans for the hotel at 377 Greenwich St., including designs for a two-bedroom penthouse suite on top of the new building. The penthouse, which is nearly complete is more than 1,100 square feet bigger than what developers were told they could build. The penthouse roof is also steeper than designs originally indicated it would be, and is thusly more visible from the streets below.

Now, developers have to back through the gauntlet of getting their hotel approved, only this time, they’ve got to answer the additional question of why the building doesn’t match the plans.

Developers of the building appeared before CB1’s Landmarks Committee to explain what happened and seek the committee’s advisory approval. Ira Drukier, who owns the building with DeNiro, said plans for the hotel were altered after developers met with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), days before the project was in front of the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA). The BSA approved the penthouse as built, as did CB1’s Tribeca Committee, but Drukier said developers failed to get the new penthouse plans approved by either the LPC or CB1’s Landmarks Committee

“We didn’t come back here, and that was a mistake,” Drukier said. “We’re trying to get this resolved.”

The procedural misstep notwithstanding, Drukier said the hotel’s developers believe both CB1 and the Landmarks Commission would have approved the new penthouse had they seen the plans before it was built.

“We don’t find that this is a major change to the entire project,” he said.

DeNiro, who also is a partner in the Tribeca Film Center and Tribeca Grill next door, said he thought the building, as it stands now, epitomizes the character of the neighborhood and that the penthouse, unapproved though it may have been, didn’t impose on that character.

“I said if I’m involved with something [in Tribeca], I wanted to make it something special,” DeNiro said in brief remarks. “Personally, I find a lot of the buildings in the neighborhood to be not so great.”

Committee members supported the developers in convincing fashion, agreeing that the increased size didn’t detract from the overall aesthetic of the building.

“[The developers] certainly have added to the neighborhood,” committee member Noel Jefferson said. “I don’t have any bad comments. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love the hotel, and we really appreciate the time and care that you took to make sure that the design is in keeping with the area.”

Committee chairman Michael Connolly made it a point to say that DeNiro’s contribution to the neighborhood was not relevant to the board’s decision.

 “I think it’s simply a question of legalizing a mistake which shouldn’t have been made, but which has minimal effect on the appearance of the building,” Connolly said.

Public committee member Brian Lutz disagreed, intimating he believed the hotel’s developers were the beneficiaries of a double standard, largely because of who owned the building.

“The bottom line is, [they] overbuilt it without having to go through what has to happen,” Lutz said. “I’m a small builder, and I suffer every time I go to the Buildings Department.”

The next step for the hotel’s developers will be to appear before the Landmarks Commission Tuesday, June 17. LPC spokeswoman Lisi De Bourbon wouldn’t comment specifically on the Greenwich Street hotel, but said the commission would not approve anything it did not believe was consistent with its intent for the neighborhood. At worst, the commission can force developers to tear down the penthouse and start over.

“That has happened in the past,” DeBourbon said. “If it’s illegal, and it’s entirely visible, that would be circumstance enough to ask the builder to modify it or tear it down.”

While the LPC can’t impose any monetary penalties, Drukier said having to knock down the penthouse and start over would be financially punitive measure in and of itself, adding that it would cost an estimated $1.5 million to rebuild the rooftop suite. In 2006, the commission ordered the destruction of another illegal penthouse on top of the Skylofts tower at 145 Hudson St.

Matt Markowitz, the project’s chief architect, said it would take at least a few months to get through the approval process. If the LPC signs off on the new design, the developers’ next stop would be a hearing with the city’s Department of Buildings.

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