Ben Kallos has negotiated and passed multiple zonings and rezoning through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for individual applicants in his district, including one where he was an applicant, and even led the most recent rezoning for the entire borough of Manhattan.
Fighting "Billionaires' Row" and Supertall Towers in Residential Neighborhoods
Ben is an outspoken critic of super tall towers for the ultra-rich on Billionaires' Row and real estate developers getting favors for political donations.
Ben has experience organizing the community to fight a proposed 950-foot super tall tower for billionaires. Ben joined the first of its kind community-led rezoning to stop super tall towers and the community won their rezoning forcing the building to halt construction. The rezoning stopped Billionaire’s Row from expanding beyond 2nd Avenue on Manhattan Eastside. However, one site applied to be grandfathered by the Board of Standards and Appeals. When that happened, Ben appeared as co-counsel for oral arguments before the Supreme Court.
When another developer proposed a 510-foot skyscraper with only 25 stories propped up on a 150-foot empty mechanical void, Ben worked with the community to defeat the “Jetson’s Tower” on stilts. Ben also led a rezoning to stop supertall towers from being built with empty spaces called “mechanical voids” that had grown as high as 160 feet tall. Ben was able to pass the rezoning for the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan that banned the use of empty mechanical voids that allowed for buildings to have mechanical spaces of unlimited height.
Our firm is here to help communities move their zoning proposals forward and stand up to rezonings that would displace people from the neighborhoods that they've invested their entire lives in.
Fighting "As of Right" Development
On East 88th Street a real estate developer proposed a 4-foot-wide-lot so they could build the tallest tower in the neighborhood with 32 stories at 521-feet tall, leading Ben to file a complaint along with State Senator Liz Krueger and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer that shut down the project until the developer changed the size of the lot.
On East 91st Street a developer proposed demolishing a playground on public housing land for a skyscraper that was widely opposed by elected officials including Ben. Public housing residents with support from Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Borough President Brewer and Ben were able to stop the project.
Just because a developer or elected official says a project is "as of right" or a "done deal" doesn't mean they are right. Our firm can help determine whether a developer is following applicable laws. On numerous occasions, when projects that don't seem right are put under scrutiny and challenged, it turns out that they are unable to move forward as originally proposed.
Community Benefits Agreements
On New Year’s Day 2014, Ben negotiated a $500 million expansion of the Rockefeller University over the FDR Drive, with $15 million in improvements to the East River Esplanade, along with an agreement to open up a new bio-tech incubator. In the years that followed Ben was able to secure $9 million in funding from the City for the bio-tech incubator.
Ben also negotiated an expansion of Hospital for Special Surgery and secured their additional investment of $1.8 million into renovating the East River Esplanade from 70th to 78th Streets. Our firm can help you and your community set the narrative and win real community benefits.
Our firm can work with you and your community to help win real benefits for the community from changes to the building's impact on the neighborhood, to composition and income threshold for affordable housing, to investments in nearby schools, libraries, parks and non-profits.