Daniel Straus development company, JZS Madison, bought six brownstones from the Whitney Museum for $95 million with plans to convert them to luxury condominiums. However, the local community board expressed concerns with the plans, which they worried, would be bad for their neighborhood.
Two unlawfully terminated caregivers from Care One’s Somerset nursing home facility in New Jersey testified at a Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing in October 2011, where the Commission considered a Certificate of Appropriateness for the high-priced development project proposed by JZS Madison. Straus needed the Committee’s approval for the project because the buildings are in a historic preservation district.
Ten Upper East Side neighbors and representatives of neighborhood community groups also expressed objections to aspects of the project. The Landmarks Preservation Commissioners had substantive concerns about the project and postponed their vote on the Certificate of Appropriateness.
