[Aug. 29, by Dan Efram]
Well, to answer our headline: We have no idea!
You know the background: Developer Douglas Steiner bought the property last fall for an unspecified residential complex. This summer, workers demolished the structures on the Mary Help of Christians lot on Avenue A between East 12th Street and East 11th Street.
Next, presumably, there's construction of the new building. At this point, you'd figure Steiner reps would have filed the plans with the Department of Buildings... and we could all see the proposal... and await city approval (or not).
Steiner reps did file plans in July. Unfortunately, we just can't see them.
In our six years of blogging and digging through DOB files, we've never seen this before. In the words of an EVG friend who we shared this with, here's where things get interesting. Through the Hub "self-service" thing, architects and engineers "can professionally certify plans for small construction projects (Alteration 2 and Alteration 3) without visiting a Department office."
However! Since bigger projects like the demolition of a church and school for a residential complex include change of use, we don't understand how those would quality as "small construction projects." As our EVG friend theorized, "maybe what's happening is they're just electronically submitting permit applications for like interior demo and debris removal and scaffolding installation."
So given all this, we won't be able to see these applications until they are accepted into the DOB system.
But we got a few possible clues about the space back in May ... when a retail listing at Ripco Real Estate popped up .. then quickly disappeared. From that listing:
Size
11,356 sf - Ground Floor
11,508 sf - Basement Possible
*Divisions possible
Asking Rent
Upon Request
Possession
4Q 2014
Currently
New Construction
Frontage
150’ on Avenue A
70’ on 11th Street
Notes & Highlights:
• New construction at the base of 140 unit market luxury rental building
• Steps from Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village with 30,000 residents
• Close proximity to Tompkins Square Park
• Located in the heart of the East Village and Alphabet City
So, going back to our headline... to answer the question: What can we expect?
Something big.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Permits filed to demolish Mary Help of Christians church, school and rectory
Preservationists call for archeological review of former cemetery at Mary Help of Christians site
Scaffolding arrives for demolition of Mary Help of Christians
The 'senseless shocking self-destruction' of Mary Help of Christians
