PVD City Council Special Committee on Ways and Means Public Hearing | October 21st 2026

Calling this special committee on ways and means public hearing to order. If you plan on testifying on any of the items before us today, please sign up at the table at the front. Since it is a public hearing, we do not need to do roll call, but I will recognize my vice chair for today is councilor Peterson, councilor Davidson is with us, Kenny from our city solicitor's office, excited to join us today, and of course our madam clerks, Donna and Clarissa, thank you. Can we please get item one read into the record And can we please bring the sheet one up to to read whoever's gonna testify on this?

Item Thank one, an ordinance establishing a tax stabilization agreement for 256 Broadway.

Thank you. Dylan Conley, on behalf of the applicant, I have the applicant with me.

Harif Shahadi.

And so, I think what we want to do is you have this printout you have this printout in front of you. A ref will walk you through it. I'll be here to answer questions and the details. I think what is interesting and of note here is the timeline between draft of the submission, actual submission, and today spans almost three years, about two years from submission until today. So at the time of application, this was a very different project than what has come about.

And I think that travel will be interesting specific to this project, but also in general, sort of the risk that you take on when you do an adaptive reuse of an old building.

Thank you. Alright. So 256 Broadway is a large building on Broadway. You know, if you're familiar with Broadway, you're familiar with this building. So, we've owned it for a few years now.

It's quite a large site. In fact, it's probably the largest undeveloped lot on the stretch of Broadway. This property had sort of its challenges from the very beginning. Right when we purchased it, had different plans on what we were gonna do with the project, but what we learned is that we have to essentially keep the tenant there, and we agreed to sign a very long lease with with that restaurant, Le Mee Hot Pot. Because of that, you know, we'd...

On one hand, we did keep a commercial tenant that's been there for a long time. Same with Bagel Express. On the other hand, it presented with issues that were on, you know, we we really didn't know what to expect. So one of one of the main issues about this building, and and really buildings like this that are developed really pre 1900 is is the structure. So this building, once we we actually removed a lot of the the framing and and the plaster, we realized that it actually is completely disconnected from the brick of the building.

So picture just a structure of bricks. So anything that's gonna be new with with framing and that kind of thing is a is a completely new structure from the basement all the way to the to the roof. In fact, we had three or four pretty, you know, sizable engineering firms that that turned down this project because of its complexity, and the only ones that actually ended up doing it is WSP who do very large projects, one of which is downtown in Brown.

I interject for one moment. For the sake of timeline, the... Being required to keep the tenant and the discovery that the engineering was as complex as it was is post site acquisition, post original application for TSA. So the entire pro form a of the project and the cost associated with the project shifted very dramatically post site acquisition and post original application for the TSA.

Yeah, and actually just to add a little support to that, because of the complexity we were looking at different ways of actually solving the issue. So we went down a whole road of 4th Floor Level actually and so much so that we went to the historic district and we got approval for a 4th Floor which would be the first really new construction on Broadway. I think other than a couple ground up. We actually ended up scratching that idea because again we realized the sheer cost of that alone was not gonna be worth it. So it's been riddled with a lot of challenges, and certainly if you look at the, you know, what I've sent here is, you you'll see sort of the timeline from acquisition to the TSA application to the historic approvals and such.

So really the TSA is going to enable us to have this property, for lack of a better term, not hemorrhage itself, and the idea is that the lot is really the future of this whole thing, right? We've already looked at different programs for 40 to 50 units, but if we can't get this project or building right, I don't know if that's even going be feasible. So that's what I have.

So just to reiterate, it's a very large lot. There's the existing structure that we're dealing with today. There's a vacant lot next door. We're not dealing with the vacant lot yet. We need to stabilize the existing historic structure, both literally and financially, in order to, pursue the project on the vacant lot next door.

So, we're hopeful that we'll, be back in front of this committee and the city in a effort to develop that lot. But today, we still have very serious challenges wrapping up the current project as a result of the engineering concerns that were discovered and the long term tenant in place.

And I just I just wanna add, know, in general, this kind of a a masochist when it comes to this, but most of the... If not all the projects I do are adaptive reuse. I own, you know, a number of buildings on Broadway. They all have historic challenges. And I I really try to go the extra mile for, you know, doing the same type of period work, you know, now as they did before.

So, know, namely, for example, 225 Broadway, we added we added a beautiful portico there that that matched the details of the original building, and you know, truly dollar for dollar it does not translate into a return. So there's a big law diminishing return there, and so you know that's the challenge with it and I'd like to continue doing that. I'd like to continue you know the adaptive reuse of these buildings and making them actually useful for current sort of standards and what you know it'd be best used for. But you know it's really becoming more and more of a challenge. So anything like this like the TSA would help tremendously.

Just a quick question. So I I... So there's two commercial businesses right now in this location. Is there any residential on top of those businesses right now?

So upstairs used to be the American Idolo Club or something back in the day, but one side of it had four or five apartments. So it doesn't currently just because we're about 85% through construction, but there were a few apartments before. I think three or four, if I remember correctly. The other side was all office.

Just a quick question, chair. Is this the only TSA or these two requests, are these the only ones that you have or do you have some on other properties that you own?

So this is... These are the only two TSAs today, 256 and 298 Broadway, if that answers your question.

If the if the question was about other work done to sort of see quality of work performed, I think 225 Broadway serves as an excellent example because it's nearby and similarly historic renovation. 2215 Broadway. 72 Broadway. You had one on... In the East Side as well, didn't you?

Yeah. I mean, we have 182 Waterman, 200 Waterman.

182 Waterman, 200 Waterman. 5 Benefit Street. 5 Benefit. Yeah. Yeah.

81 South Angel. 81 South Angel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's great work, man.

Oh, thanks.

Sorry. Another follow-up question. Are these... You said that these have historic designation or no? Are they just considered historic buildings?

They're just considered... Yeah. It's not like we're going for some historic federal credit or anything, but we we had to get approval on windows and that sort of thing for... You know, with the historic commission.

Here are my notes, Dylan. I I have that this applicant was submitted to us in March 2025. Is that correct?

So... No. I... What do we have as our date of submission?

So so this was submitted prior to the permit, which... And the permit said was around October 2024. So this has been at least two years since submit... Since submission.

You have October 2024?

October 24, we have as our first full submission to the TSA program. We had, for whatever it may be worth, drafts in 2023, including site walks with the counselor of the ward going back at least to 2023 because it was going to be a large new construction at the same time. And I think based on the presentation you heard here this evening, you can see why we have not been able to pursue the two builds simultaneously. We're stabilizing the existing building before determining what goes on, on the lot. The first concept in 2023 was both simultaneously.

Then we had the iteration, which included an additional floor, received historic approval for that. Essentially, combination of the tenant needing to be in place and the lack of structural support within the building itself, the inability to put supportive structure through tenant space that made solving the engineering challenges of the 4th Floor cost prohibitive. So we are essentially trying to snatch stabilization from defeat. It's been a very unfortunate project so far.

Sorry, just so that we can put it in the record, would you be able to tell us what you're proposing like in terms of the number of units and everything like that? I know that I see it here in my... But just for the record for record purposes.

Sure. So so all of it is within the existing envelope of the building. So on the 2nd And 3rd Floor, it's five units per floor, 10 units, and then there's a... There is a house in the back that's that's actually historically significant, so that's gonna remain as well. So it'll be 11 units plus the existing two commercial spaces.

For whatever it may be worth, if you're ever in the neighborhood and you wanna look at the house in the back to see, whether it expands your concept of what qualifies as historically significant, you may find it intriguing. I I don't I don't make judgments in that regard, but we were surprised when we were required to keep the home in the back.

Hi. Thanks, Chair. Can you talk a little bit more about the phase two project so I can understand that and the connection between this project and that project.

Sure. So the initial concept, if you are... If you're standing in front of the building, there's a vacant lot to your immediate left on the corner of the street, And it was gonna involve a renovation of the building that was what we're here about today and a new build simultaneously. Crews on-site, take care of both things at the same time, much larger project. The existing building, we were gonna see additional height on.

And basically, we got in to the project and determined that that wasn't gonna be feasible. So we had to basically walk away from the new construction first because we needed to stabilize the structure and building that we had. And when I say stabilize, we mean both physically with the engineering well as financially. The pro form a shifted pretty significantly because the cost went up, the income went down with the tenant and also the lack of the 4th Floor. So the pro form a got squished in both directions.

So what we are trying to do is to wrap up stabilization of the existing structure and after that is done, we're back at square one with the vacant lot. But we can't do anything with the vacant lot until we sort the existing structure.

Do you intend to seek a TSA for the vacant lot as well?

We are not. Will have to... One of the TSA requirements is that we need CBC approval in order to seek the TSA. So we don't have that in place, so we cannot pursue that.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

An ordinance establishing a tax stabilization agreement for 298 Broadway.

Yep.

Okay. Alright.

So... City sergeant, can you bring up sheet two just for formality purposes?

Sorry. Just one second, sir.