200-Foot Buildings Coming To 2 Upper East Side Blocks, Plans Show

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A pair of apartment towers will soon be built on separate Upper East Side blocks: one on the empty lot where neighbors had hoped to open a community garden, and another replacing a set of low-rise buildings now home to shops and restaurants.

Different developers filed plans for the buildings on Monday, city records show. Here's what we know about each one.

Second Avenue and East 71st Street

This building on the corner of Second Avenue and East 71st Street will stand 21 stories and 214 feet tall. Once built, it will contain 134 apartments with an average of 834 square feet apiece — plus 7,500 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and cellar.

It will replace the four five-story, tenement-style buildings that currently stand at 1343-1347 Second Ave., and at 242 East 71st St. Demolition plans were filed for each of those buildings in 2020 by the developer — Isaac Ohebshalom of the company Gatsby Enterprises — but they have remained standing until now.

It is unclear what the future holds for the businesses that occupy the ground floors of the buildings slated for demolition: a list that includes the French bistro Jean Claude II, Italian eatery Il Divo, and Afghan Kebab House.

Kamel Moumeni, owner of Jean Claude II, told Patch in an email that he had not been informed about any development plans, though he had recently noticed people taking photos and measurements outside.

"The landlord never said anything to us," he said.

The listed architect is JFA, a Brooklyn-based firm that specializes in residential buildings.

Ohebshalom acquired all four buildings in 2008 for a combined $27.5 million, and has advertised some of them as rentals since then. His company did not immediately respond to questions about when construction would begin, and when the businesses would need to relocate.

First Avenue and East 78th Street

A few blocks northeast, meanwhile, a 24-story, 209-foot tower will be constructed on the southwest corner of First Avenue and East 78th Street. That's the long-vacant corner where neighbors began a campaign last fall to open a community garden — only for those dreams to be dashed when the lot was sold to California-based Carmel Partners for $73.5 million earlier this month.

Now, Carmel appears to be moving quickly to build there. Besides replacing the empty corner lot, the tower will also require tearing down the existing low-rise buildings at 1487 First Ave. and around the corner at 356 East 78th St. (Plans to demolish those buildings were both filed on Wednesday.)

The corner lot was formerly owned by the Chou family: relatives of the local developer Robert Chou, who in 2010 began demolishing the brick buildings that once stood on the site to make way for a 12-story tower that never materialized.

Though the Chous agreed to cut down the lot's trees last month in an effort to mitigate the rat problem, they resisted calls to open the space to the public, saying they still planned to develop it one day.

The new building will include 94 apartments averaging out to nearly 1,900 square feet each — plus 7,100 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and basement. It will be designed by Hill + West Architects, which has designed other apartment buildings around the city.

Matthew Feldman, Carmel's senior vice president who was listed as owner on the applications, did not immediately respond to questions about when construction would begin. It does not appear that the building will include any affordable apartments.

Related coverage:

• UES Garden Dreams Dashed As Empty Lot Is Sold To Developer
• Imagined UES 'Green Space' Cleared Of Trees After Complaints
• Rat-Filled UES Lot Should Become Green Space, Neighbors Say
• Menin Plans New School, Open Spaces & More As UES Council Member