The ZBA and the Future of 601 Union Street

In March 2022, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted a use variance for the adaptive reuse of 601 Union Street, the Italian villa that was for decades the Hudson Elks Lodge, as a boutique hotel. 

In the year that followed, the new owners of the building discovered that the roof of the addition to the mansion, which was added after the Elks acquired the building in 1936, would not support the various amenities--a pool and an event space--they planned to locate there. As a consequence, it was decided to site the pool and the event space, along with a gym and spa, a kitchen and bar, and eleven additional rooms on adjacent land that is part of the property but extends behind the municipal parking lot next to the building and behind the historic house at 611 Union Street.

The changes required an amended use variance, and in February 2023, the new owners appeared before the ZBA seeking an amended use variance. The ZBA has been considering the request for four months now, and this past Wednesday, the members of the ZBA seemed ready to make a decision. 

There are four criteria to be considered when granting a use variance:

1. The applicant cannot realize a reasonable return, provided that lack of return is substantial as demonstrated by competent financial evidence.
2. The alleged hardship relating to the property in question is unique, and does not apply to a substantial portion of the district or neighborhood.
3. The requested use variance, if granted, will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood.
4. The alleged hardship was not self-created.

At Wednesday's meeting, a representative of Casetta, the group proposing the hotel, presented the financial evidence required by the first of the four criteria. The presentation included an economic analysis for five different scenarios, from the 30 rooms originally proposed with no amenities to the 41 rooms with the amenities now being proposed. One of the five scenarios involved doing the structural reinforcement necessary to put the pool and the event space on the roof as originally planned. This, the ZBA was told, would add 24 months to the construction time and $6 million to the construction costs. The economic analysis demonstrated that the scenario with 41 rooms and the proposed amenities was "the only scenario that realizes a profit in Year 3." The spokesperson for Casetta told the ZBA, "This is not something we just came up with. This project does not work any other way."

The attorney representing Walter Brett, who maintains that his house at 611 Union Street will be negatively impacted by the proposed hotel structures behind his property, particularly the structure that will house eleven hotel rooms, argued that there has been "no satisfaction of the major requirement that the situation is not self-created." Representatives from Casetta responded, "You can't start tearing into a structure that you don't own." Kristal Heinz, who is now the attorney for Casetta but represented the seller at the time the property was sold, attested that it was a condition of the contract that they could not "bore into the roof to discover the condition" until the sale had closed. 

After some back and forth between Brett's attorney and Heinz, each citing case law, Lisa Kenneally, who chairs the ZBA, asked members of the board, "Do you feel you are informed? Have your questions been answered?" ZBA member Myron Polenberg responded, "They answered everything we asked for." Saying he had to remove himself from "this," meaning the exchange between the lawyers, he commented, "I cannot work on the assumption that they [Casetta] are trying to bullshit me." Polenberg seemed ready to make a motion to grant the amended use variance, but Kenneally stopped him, saying, "I don't know if we're there yet."

ZBA legal counsel, Janis Gomez Anderson then led the board through Part 2 and Part 3 of the SEQR Short Environmental Assessment Form, and the board agreed unanimously that granting the use variance would not have a huge impact on the environment. Kenneally then said that the "financial stuff" needed to be incorporated into the resolution they voted on and made a motion to authorize Gomez Anderson to draft a resolution including that information. It is expected that the ZBA will vote on a resolution to grant the amended use variance at its next meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, July 19.

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