Department Of Buildings Rejects Draft Proposal For 30-Story Building On Voorhies Avenue

Developers behind the 30-story residential building slated for 1501 Voorhies Avenue will have to submit more documentation before they can break ground on the project after the city disapproved their draft plans.

The disapproval is more of a bureaucratic hurdle typical of large-scale projects than it is a barrier to moving forward, but still indicates the scrutiny the plan is receiving.

After a review of the submitted plans, the Department of Buildings disapproved the proposal in mid-December. A spokesperson for the department said that the plans were incomplete, and that the developers – Muss Development and AvalonBay – must submit more documentation to prove the project will be in zoning and code compliance.

For a project of this scale, more than 100 items are required by the city before permits can be issued, and 22 items must be shown before plans are approved. The owners have only submitted four items, and must still provide documentation from everything including soil reports and street tree plans, to traffic and zoning diagrams. A full list of the required documents can be found here.

Still, the holdup can be described as routine. Developers often submit incomplete plans, receive comments from the DOB, revise and refile – and the larger the project the more scrutiny it is under.

A spokesperson for Muss Development said that’s exactly the case here.

“We had our initial set of plans, and we’re working through their objections,” said Muss Development’s Chief Operating Officer Jeff Kay. “We’re continuing to work on our plans and we expect DOB approval and will continue in accordance with our schedule to begin construction later this year.”

Kay noted that demolition of the building at 1524 Sheepshead Bay Road is already wrapping up. The storefront adjoins the Voorhies Avenue property, and the tear-down will make way for a gated pedestrian walkway onto the property, as Sheepshead Bites was the first to report.

The 30-story luxury residential tower was first made public in September by this outlet, and we later revealed that Muss, the owner of the Oceana condominiums, and AvalonBay are planning the 333-foot-tall, 250-unit structure, which will be a mixture of rentals and condominiums, the latter starting at approximately $700,000. There will also be a handful of office spaces available on the lower floors.

Parking, traffic and sewage infrastructure concerns continue to surround the project, with some saying that the 176 parking spaces is insufficient, and that the driveway’s location on already-congested Voorhies Avenue, across from the Belt Parkway exit, will be problematic.