Apartment building could tower over Broadway

There’s nowhere to go but up … at least in Kingsbridge.

Siblings Maryam and Mohammed Yaghoubi are ready to construct a building 13 stories above the 1 train on Broadway near West 231st Street, turning the former site of Mr. McGoo’s Pub and a neighboring parking garage into more than 225 affordable apartments.

“Reading what the highest requirements are for our community in the Riverdale area, it’s housing, housing, housing,” Mohammed Yaghoubi told Community Board 8’s land use committee on Monday. “That’s always what comes up. And we feel like we have a really good opportunity to bring affordable housing to the community, and be of service to the community that has given us really so much.”

The Yaghoubis’ father purchased 5604 Broadway in 1985, and the family has operated the parking garage there ever since. Maryam and Mohammed say they have practically grown up in this business district, with Mohammed even working in the parking garage, and later attending Manhattan College.

The structure they want to build will fill a flag-shaped lot that would have minimal frontage on Broadway, stretching behind neighboring buildings mostly facing the Major Deegan Expressway. Although the Yaghoubis plan to concentrate on two-bedroom apartments in the structure, half the overall units will be studio and one-bedroom apartments, while only a small percentage will make it to three bedrooms.

That would produce typical rents in the range of $1,455 and $2,500, although 34 units will be dedicated to those who were formerly homeless with rents dropping below $250 a month for a studio, and a little more than $500 for a three-bedroom.

On top of that, the family wants to ensure parking remains on this part of Broadway, making way for a 188-space underground parking garage.

“This would be a cellar and a sub-cellar dedicated to parking, which is not typical in an affordable housing development,” said real estate attorney Frank St. Jacques of Akerman, who represents the Yaghoubis. “But we recognize that the parking garage that is there today is a resource for the community. And the goal was to continue to provide parking for the community.”

But even the best intentions may not translate into reality. Before the Yaghoubis can even pull out a single shovel, they first have to convince the city to let them rezone the property — from one that doesn’t allow any residential development at all, to R7-3, which allows developers to build higher on smaller lots.

“What we really needed to do was balance the difficult aspects of designing on this site, this tax lot that’s flag-shaped, that’s against the elevated rail line, that has a park at the rear,” St. Jacques said. “This site has plenty of unique, difficult conditions. But it is also what the zoning we’re seeking is to balance some of the design concerns with an amount of units that would present a feasible project for an affordable housing development, and also include a parking garage.”

Where the development stands now, at full occupancy collecting the announced rents, the building would generate nearly $300,000 a month in rental revenue, averaging a little more than $1,250 per unit.

But inserting an R7-3 into an area that is predominantly the lower-density R6 zone is a red flag for CB8 member Rosemary Ginty.

“Maybe my eyesight is getting bad, but this looks like a spot zone to me,” the former board chair said. “As a matter of fact, it looks like the definition of a spot zone.”

Another obstacle, according to land use chair Charles Moerdler, could be the number of studio apartments planned.

“It’s got 25 percent studios,” Moerdler said. “That, to my mind, is really high. You have the borough president who has made the point I’m sure she’s made to you and she’s made to anyone who will listen … that we need more family housing. Having 25 percent of a wonderful building is still 25 percent and single occupancy, basically. And I would ask you to rethink that.”

Councilman Eric Dinowitz wasn’t ready to share his opinion on the project, but said if nothing else, the developers have been willing to course correct along the way.

“I think the original distribution was 30 percent one-, and 30 percent two- and three-bedrooms,” Dinowitz said. “So, they have increased the number of family units, and I do want to give them credit for listening and being responsive to that need.”

And the parking? The number of proposed spaces is fewer than the number of units, but the developers believe they can still offer enough parking to renters, with some room left over for the public.

Assuming those spaces aren’t under water.

“There have been flooding problems on Broadway in the past,” land use committee member Bob Bender said. “I think you want to take a good, hard look at that situation before making any final decision about where you’re locating your parking, because the flooding problem is likely, as we all know, to get worse, and not better, in the future.

“I also want to make sure that aside from your property, that whatever you do there doesn’t create more of a flooding hazard for the adjacent properties.”

Despite the work already done in the planning stages, the Yaghoubis have pretty much just started what will likely be an arduous journey through the city planning process. But it’s one St. Jacques says they’re ready for.

“We have read the Community Board 8 district needs statement, and note that for the past five years, affordable housing has been the top pressing need,” the Akerman attorney said. “This is consistent with much of the city, but we recognize that it’s a need within Community (Board) 8 where about 45 percent of the population is rent-burdened.

“So, we feel this project — in particular as a 100 percent affordable project — will help begin to address that housing crisis.”