GREGG WEIS & GARDNER ARCHITECTS
A developer received final approval to transform an empty stretch of Crown and George streets — where police found a dismembered torso in a squatters’ lair — into five market-rate apartment buildings, contributing to a taller, denser downtown.
The developer, Robert Smith of Metro Star development, won that unanimous approval Tuesday night from the Board of Zoning Appeals, for a special exception for a planned development unit, or PDU, in a central business district.
That was the last major step in the process for Smith, who can now go forward to build his 37,750 square-foot development on .86 acres, spanning Crown to George Streets between College and High Streets.
The special exception lets him build taller and denser than is normally allowed under current zoning regulations.
Metro Star bought 301 – 5 George and 274 Crown from the Salvation Army. It will demolish the Crown storefront, as well as a former warehouse and adult rehab center for struggling addicts, where police found the dismembered body of Ray Roberson this summer.
Smith’s company, which is already rebuilding other structures on the block, plans to construct four new buildings, including three connected three-story “Mews Buildings” on Crown and a six-story apartment building on George Street. It plans tp renovate a fifth existing building, a brownstone chapel in the center of the block. Smith calls the project “Metro 301.”
The project will next head to City Plan staff for a site plan review; the Board of Alders does not need to approve it.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
“We are very excited about the project,” Smith (pictured) said when contacted after the zoning meeting Tuesday. He said Metro Star plans to start construction next April and finish by April 2017.