SURPRISE!!!!! New Permit Issued For 333 Carroll Street, The Building With The Growth On Top

Something "fishy" going on at 333-335 Carroll Street

Karl Fischer takes over as architect and self-certifies permit renewals

No building in Carroll Gardens illustrated the need for a neighborhood down-zoning better than the condo conversion at 333-335 Carroll Street, between Hoyt and Bond Streets. Back in 2005, owner Issac Fischman hired bad boy architect Robert "Mezzanine" Scarano to convert an old brick manufacturing building into a 31 unit condo. As part of the plans, a two story, 40 foot steel addition was erected on top of the old structure.

Alarmed residents asked the NYC Department of Buildings to review the plans, which revealed that Robert Scarano had been more than creative with the floor-air-ratio calculations. The Building's Department confirmed in March 2008, that the architect has lied on the application, claiming that the cellar was a basement. Scarano intended to use the "habitable" basement for parking and had transferred the square footage onto the roof.

The building's owner fired Scarano and the site was slapped with a full stop work order on March 4th 2008. Since that time, the empty building has been dormant. In the meantime, the neighborhood got organized and with the help of the Department of City Planning, was able to down-zone Carroll Gardens, in order to protect this historical neighborhood from out-of-scale developments such as 333-335 Carroll Street.
Unlike the original R6 zoning, the new R6B zoning has a 50 foot height limit. The City Council voted unanimously for the re-zoning on October 28, 2009. It went into effect immediately.

Unbeknown to local residents, the building's owner hired another controversial architect, Karl Fischer, to resolve his building's woes. Fischer, the architect behind the 11 story 'finger' at 100 Luquer street, filed for an amendement, which he self-certified. The record show an audit was accepted on October 16, just days before the new R6B zoning went into effect. It is still unclear how Fischer was able to solve the original Floor-Area-Ratio problem. The owner may have bought some air rights from other buildings. He may also have added an Ambulatory Diagnostic Health Facility, which may have given him bonus F.A.R. under the old zoning. (Under the new R6B zoning, that would not have helped.)

A new building permit has been issued on November 5, 2009 for:

Proposed conversion of existing manufacturing building to residential with additional floors, as per Article 7B MDL, including the removal and construction of interior & exterior bearing & non-bearing partitions, plumbing fixtures, finishes, cabinetry & casework, complete repiping of building.

If indeed, the audit and the permits were filed and approved before the Carroll Gardens re-zoning on October 28th, the developer got them in under the wire. That would be incredibly unfortunate for the neighborhood.

However, given the history of the site and the willful misleading by the developer to get more building than he is entitled to, it would seem appropriate for the Buildings Department to take a very careful look at all the paperwork.



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