Bruce Lambert, The New York Times, Jan. 21, 1996
The landmark Belnord Apartments, spanning the block bounded by Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue and 86th and 87th Streets, was the largest apartment building in the world when it opened in 1908. Its grandeur has faded over the years, and now the owners plan a major face lift: replacing all 2,211 windows, cleaning and repointing the facade and restoring the courtyard.
But there’s a catch. In order to pay for the work, the owners are applying for a zoning change that would allow them to lease the 30,000-square-foot cellar for commercial use. They propose a single retail tenant, possibly a supermarket, although no specific concern has been named.
More than 60 tenants of the Belnord Apartments packed a meeting of Community Board 7’s Landmarks Committee meeting Thursday night to express their concerns about the landlord’s application.
Read the full article in The New York Times.
