SoftStone files plans to add nine dwelling units at 75 Essex Street in LES

SoftStone Development & Management, on April 26, filed plans for a project to build nine residential units on top of a commercial building at 75 Essex Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Nechemia Weinberger filed the plans. Nathan Weinberger is the president of SoftStone.

Shalom Eisner’s Eisner Brothers has owned the building since the 1970s. The building, constructed in the 1890s, was known as the Eastern Dispensary and was used to provide aid and treatment to the sick and poor. Since Eisner acquired it, the building has been used as a memorabilia store.

Eisner has debated selling the building for over a decade, asking $18 million for the building in 2010, $21 million for it in 2013, and then $30 million in 2014.

An individual who answered the phone at SoftStone was not able to answer if the developer was in contract to acquire the site.

The plans call for the increase in size of the building from a 62-foot tall, four-story building to a 162-foot tall, 14-story building with nine dwelling units. This was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number M00719153.

The project is described in the filing as: vertical enlargement to existing four-story commercial building, adding 10 stories for residential apartments.

According to the plans, a residential lobby will be added to the ground floor. Floors two through four will be converted to office space. Floors five through 12 will each have one dwelling unit per floor, while floors 13 and 14 will have one half of a duplex unit each.

The architect listed is Rise Architecture.

Correction: An earlier version of this post had the incorrect date of construction of the building.

Direct link to Acris documents. LINK

Direct link to DOB NOW Public Portal. LINK