$155-Mil Hell's Kitchen Apartment Tower Clears First City Council Hurdle

NEW YORK CITY-A controversial residential project slated for development in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood won a crucial battle Friday, passing a City Council subcommittee vote despite vehement opposition by a number of neighborhood groups.

What was planned as a 62-story residential tower next to the dilapidated Biltmore Theater at 47th Street and Eighth Avenue has been lopped down to 51 floors with 20% of the units designated as affordable housing. But area residents protested the project vigorously at today’s meeting of the Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises in an effort to get the developer to agree to drop the building’s height to less than 50 stories.

According to Clinton Special District Coalition president John Fisher, the proposed building by developer Biltmore 47 Associates LLC–a joint venture between Jack Parker Corp. and The Moinian Group–represents another brick in the high-rise wall that developers have planned for Eighth Avenue.