Email Reveals Probable Expansion of Essex Crossing to Include Eastern Dispensary Building at 75 Essex [EXCLUSIVE]
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Despite recent news to the contrary, Taconic Partners (or, more likely, one of its subsidiaries) is very much still interested in purchasing the Eastern Dispensary building at 75 Essex Street, as we first reported. We now have what appears to be smoking gun evidence that an expansion of Essex Crossing is on the table, but apparently “under wraps” for now.
Mr. Eisner not only has an enormous real estate footprint at 75 Essex, his 31,776 square-feet of valuable air rights have developers of Essex Crossing drooling. Eisner told the Landmarks subcommittee of Community Board 3 earlier this month that he envisions a condo conversion in the near future, and would be amenable to a city-protected designation if he can still build atop the property. This motion was rubber-stamped by the Parks subcommittee last night (per protocol). From here, it’s on to the full board meeting for ratification, and then the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Let’s hope this lights a fire under the asses of the LPC. Though, given the money at stake here, it remains a long-shot.
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Email showing Essex Crossing wants to expand
But there’s more on the Essex Crossing expansion. We are also told that the embattled Beth Hamedrash Hagadol is yet another site currently considered for inclusion in the updated plan. Even though it’s been landmarked since 1967, Rabbi Mendel Greenbaum had, at one point, petitioned the LPC to de-landmark the structure so that condominiums could be built instead. As a trade, a small synagogue would be built on the ground floor for the floundering congregation. He apparently had a change of heart recently, and is now for protection.
However, as this email states, money talks…