An application to demolish the one-story commercial building from 1954 at 31-33 Lispenard and the one-story 1946 commercial building next door at 35 Lispenard is in front of Community Board 1’s Landmarks Committee this month. The plans have been on the books since 2019, but now, seven years later, it looks like the owners of the two sites are ready to start construction.

The corner lot, 31-33 Lispenard aka 321 Church, was once owned by the Matera family and was sold again in December for $4.3 million. The building next door, #35, sold in December for $3.2 million. From what I can tell, plans do not include building on top of the lot at #35 — just the corner lot. (NB: the drawings here are from the original 2019 proposal; the Landmarks Commission made some changes, described below.)

The property is owned by Urban Standard Capital, a real estate investment company with three lines of business: ground-up development, renovation of existing properties and short-term financing solutions. The LLC here is called Beyond Living Lispenard.

The plans that were approved by the Landmarks Commission in 2019 are good for eight years, so I assume they are operating with that in mind. The building will be seven stories, 87 feet tall and will yield 9,191 square feet of residential space and 845 square feet ground floor commercial. As approved, the building will have five residences, most likely condos based on the average unit scope of 1,838 square feet.

Landmarks approved a design on November 12, 2019, that included a limestone facade, horizontal reveals carved into the building, a penthouse floor and the bulkhead to match the overall building’s color, and a rear façade’s material of brick.

Ilya the barber moved in 2024 and now has a permanent space on Worth.

from 1940s tax documents