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EVG file photo]
The city has approved developer Arun Bhatia's plans for a 13-floor "new student housing building" on Cooper Square at East Sixth Street, according to public records. The DOB website shows that the plans were OK'd this past Friday.
Bhatia's reps first filed paperwork for a 9-story dorm for an unspecified school in this space back in August 2012, as we first reported. Along the way,
the dorm grew by 4 floors.
The
paperwork on file with the DOB shows a building with 55 units and 3,517 square feet for commercial space. Kossar + Garry Architects, LLP are the architects of record.
There are many unknowns publicly about the project, such as who the dorm is for... and when construction will commence. The
Arun Bhatia Development Organization has developed dorms for the New School and Marymount Manhattan College, among others, through the years.
The dorm will sit on a lot previously occupied in part by 35 Cooper Square,
the Federal-style building that dated to 1825.
The closing of the Asian Pub in January 2011 at 35 Cooper Square set in motion a sequence of events that led to the demolition of the building in 2011.
Neighbors haven't been so supportive of all this, as various signs left on the fence here have shown the past two years... like this one from
March 2012...
An aside: The DOB website shows that there is still a "partial vacate" on 35 Cooper Square... dated from November 2008. Per the
all-cap DOB speak: "NO 2ND MEANS OF EGRESS AT REAR YARD."
Thankfully the demolition crew took care of that egress problem.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)
Here's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square: 9-story dormitory
Proposed dorm for former 35 Cooper Square looks to be 4 floors taller