Second Board Of Standards And Appeals Hearing Regarding Gowanus Rock And Roll Playhouse Scheduled For Tomorrow

280 Bond Street

Zoning map for 280 Bond Street

drawing via therockandrollplayhouse.com

At a recent We Are Gowanus get-together with Borough President Eric Adams

and Council Member Stephen Levin

Council Member Stephen Levin and Borough President Eric Adams came to look at the development site and expressed serious concern about the effect on the neighborhood.

Borough President Eric Adams checking out proposed Rock and Roll Playhouse building from one of the residential building on Sackett Street to get a better understanding of the venue's potential impact on neighbors.

Elizabeth Cordova, Member of We Are Gowanus, with Borough President Eric Adams

Sparks are likely to fly at the Board of Sandards and Appeals tomorrow, which will again hear the case of 280 Bond Street, a non-conforming use abutting six residential townhouses that developer Peter Shapiro hopes to turn into a nightclub.

Residents are seeking to revert the space to residential and have provided a mountain of evidence that casts serious doubt on assertions by the site's owner, Alvin Isacowitz, that it has been in continuous commercial use. Besides sworn affidavits by current and former residents of the neighborhood -- including two stating that Isacowitz said he was retiring years ago, We Are Gowanus has produced sworn testimony and a sworn financial disclosure form from the owner himself stating that he has been retired for years. You'd think that would be enough to discredit just about anything Isacowitz claimed.

But the Department of Buildings has so far chosen to keep its head in the sand, responding that it prefers to believe that Isacowitz chose to lie under penalty of perjury before a judge and before the District Attorney, instead of before the DOB.


The BSA hearing will be held tomorrow, April 1st, at 22 Read Street, Spector Hall, 10am. Read more