I was on Walker today when I stopped and took a long look at the vacant lot at 88 Walker (between Cortlandt Alley and Lafayette). It used to be a parking lot, but now a wire has been drawn across the entire thing, with a “no trespassing” sign hanging from it.

When I got home I looked on the Department of Buildings website: Plans for a nine-story hotel were filed last summer. They were marked “disapproved” and then “pending.” I’m not sure what that means—perhaps James will explain—but it seems fair to assume that we’ll end up getting a nine-story building there at some point. The developer is 88 City Development in Flushing, with Teddy Li as the contact; the architect is James Y. Cheng of Design 101.

That whole area is about to take off. One hopes, possibly against hope, that 88 Walker gets something nice.

UPDATE: “The ‘pending’ refers to zoning approval of the proposed use,” commented James. “No zoning diagrams have apparently been scanned in yet. For a hotel in an M district, if the height, footage and other requirements comply, this should be an ‘as of right’ project with no variances required. No such applications for a variance are indicated on the filing.”