Monday, July 8, 2019

Sioné is the name of Samy Mahfar's residential building at 255 E. Houston St.



Here's a look at 255 E. Houston St./171 Suffolk St., the L-shaped parcel where work continues at developer Samy Mahfar's 14-floor residential building. (The condoplex on the corner of Houston and Stanton is part of a different project.)


[Entrance at 171 Suffolk St.]

Branding on the sidewalk bridge now reveals that the building is called Sioné ...



There's also a teaser site where prospects may sign up to be on a mailing list. The site describes Sioné this way — "A Limited Collection of Luxury Residences"...



The residences here range from studios to three bedrooms — all with or without terraces ...



There's a lot of backstory with this development. Quickly: In September 2016, Mahfar withdrew his application — after a five-year fight with Community Board 3 and local elected officials — for a commercial zoning change for this property and surrounding parcels. He wanted to put a restaurant or retail business on the ground floor. Under current zoning, only a community facility is allowed. (The new building has 6,258 square feet set aside for that usage.)

Mahfar, who has been accused of harassing rent-regulated tenants, had approval for a 10-floor building, which turned into 14 floors and 88 units.

As the Lo-Down reported in December 2017: "Mahfar had already received 421a tax breaks to build some affordable units, but he was also seeking a floor area bonus through the city’s inclusionary housing program." It's not immediately clear how many affordable units may be available in this complex.

No. 255 previously housed the day-care center Action for Progress, which was forced to evacuate in 2009 after construction on the condoplex next door destabilized the building...


[EVG photo of No. 255 from 2012]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Next for 255 E. Houston St.: Community facility/school/medical building?

10-story building now in the works for 255 E. Houston St.

Debate over commercial overlay for 255 E. Houston St. and surrounding blocks continues

Report: Samy Mahfar drops bid for commercial overlay on East Houston and parts of the LES

3 comments:

cmarrtyy said...

Sione is a Samoan variant of the English name John... The world gets smaller and the names get harder to pronounce. Sione? I guess it's better than calling it The John - especially for luxury apartments.

Anonymous said...

The hedge funders really don't care, its just another blip on the rentier portfolio.

Anonymous said...

I take it all the good names were already taken??