Renovated Allerton will cater to tourists, association is told

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 11 / Devember 6 - 12, 2006

By Albert Amateau

A Chelsea block association last week celebrated the sale of the Allerton Hotel, at the corner of Eighth Ave. and W. 22nd St., which over the past several decades has been a place of one-night stands as well as temporary accommodations for homeless families and a frequent source of violence.

Zazel Loven, co-chairperson of the W. 300 Block Association, told a packed association meeting on Dec. 4 that a spokesperson for Icon Development confirmed to her that the company has acquired the five-story building at 302 W. 22nd St. from Carol Turner for $12 million.

Icon plans to convert the building, which has been vacant for more than a month since the city has been moving homeless families out of the hotel because of contract violations by the management, into a boutique hotel catering to European tourists, Loven said.

Loven said the spokesperson did not mention any addition to the building’s height. The project would include conversion of a three-story tenement adjacent to the hotel.

“Over the past three years, 6,000 people have rotated through the building,” said Andra Gabrielle, a co-chairperson of the block association. “We’re not celebrating getting rid of the people; we’re celebrating the leaving of a very abusive landlord,” she said.

Block association members said their first concern regarding the conversion of the Allerton is rats, a common neighborhood problem when old buildings are renovated.

As of Nov. 6, the Department of Buildings had not issued any work permits for the Allerton property.

On another local issue, association members heard an update on the General Theological Seminary’s proposal to replace its current four-story building on Ninth Ave. between 20th and 21st Sts. with a new building 15 stories tall facing Ninth Ave. and 13 stories facing the interior of The Close, the seminary’s square-block campus.

Chris Ballard, G.T.S. community outreach liaison, said that plans for the project by James Polshek and Partners are expected to be submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission by Dec. 22. The agency has to rule on whether the project is appropriate for the Chelsea Historic District.

The project must also be submitted to the Department of City Planning for a variance because the proposed height is twice what is allowed by current zoning.

The planned new Ninth Ave. building, developed by the Brodsky Organization, is to include luxury residential condos.