Marty's party a parking nightmare

From IMBY:

Last night Brooklyn's third term President Marty Markowitz gave his annual State of the Borough Address christening the new YMCA Park Slope Armory Sports Facility...

Dozens of No Parking signs were posted yesterday for both the entire block of 14th Street, 15th Street, and a section of 8th Avenue, apparently to make room for the cars of those who attended the evening's affair.

Glad to see our friends at the Armory Heights Plaza, 406 15th Street, took advantage of this special event, charging automobile commuters by the hour to park in their black-tie, valet operated facilities.

Only problem is that the city has found this use in violation of both NYC zoning regulations and the building's Certificate of Occupancy.

Personally I don't give a flying rat's ass if it wasn't for the fact that the Brooklyn Department of Buildings assured the 16th St. neighbors who happen to live along side the 2 story underground parking lot's only carbon monoxide vent, that the exhaust would never rise to dangerous levels as long as it was used as intended... for noncommercial off-street parking for the building's residents.

And from the Real Deal:

Parking can also bring in a decent chunk of change -- monthly rates run around $250 for a regular-size car in the areas where The Real Deal found stalled-sites-turned-parking lots, estimated Brian Ezratty, vice chairman of investment brokerage Eastern Consolidated.

At Canal and Eldridge streets, landlord and developer Baruch Singer tore down a tattered five-story building in the hopes of replacing it with a 16-story, 79,000-square-foot mixed-use tower. He lost financing "in the final hour," and in November, filed plans for a 100-space parking lot.

"The parking is only a stopgap measure until you can get construction financing and the market comes back," said Singer.

In Williamsburg -- the neighborhood with the highest concentration of stalled projects -- there are at least three such parking lots within two blocks of each other. One, at 510 Driggs Avenue, was supposed to be a 50-unit rental building.

The other two, at 261 and 237 North 9th Street, where 240 apartments were planned in two buildings, do not have permits from the city.

"The city gives us a lot of headache because they are not looking to give you a permit," said the operator of those parking lots, who would not give his name. He said he runs "tons" of parking lots on stalled sites in Brooklyn and is looking at opening more. "Flatbush Avenue, all of Clinton Hill and Park Slope" are ripe for the picking.

"I know of a couple of sites that were parking lots, deals fell through, and now continue to be parking lots," said Ezratty. "But it's very hard to get a Certificate of Occupancy to park cars when you haven't had one previously," he said, explaining that the city is not eager to park cars where towers were supposed to rise.