Thomas MacMillan Photo
Lloyd behind the controls.
If city zoners say OK, the former home of a Wooster Square auto body shop will become the new home of an Elm City music recording studio.
Firehouse 12 Records owner Nick Lloyd is looking to relocate part of his recording operations to 4 Brown St. He needs to move because the current home at 87 Union St. is set to be turned into hundreds of apartments. The new location is the former home of the now empty Unger’s Auto Body, and will become Brown Street Studios.
Lloyd appeared before the Board of Zoning Appeals for a public hearing Tuesday evening to seek a special exception to a parking. He is asking for relief that would allow the studio to forgo any parking where six spaces are required.
Tucked behind industrial buildings on Union Street, Lloyd’s studio, which he opened in 2010, is affiliated with his cutting-edge jazz club on Crown Street (also called Firehouse 12). The label is known internationally for its adventurous recordings; check out this recent New York Times review, for instance, of the latest album from guitarist Mary Halvorson.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Jim Consiglio speaks in favor of the new studio space as Lloyd looks on.
The 11,642 square-foot property at Brown Street, where Lloyd plans to move, takes up the entire lot. It used to provide parking on an adjacent lot at 99 – 107 Water St., which is a completely separate property. Lloyd plans to convert the vacant auto body building into studio, office and warehousing space. But he has no plans to take on the Water Street lot. And because the building takes up the entire lot, there is no room to add parking on-site.
Luciani gave the project a thumbs up.
Lloyd has plans to outfit the building for music production and also the warehousing and shipping of products. The building will have two full time employees and three part-time employees; two of those employees live within walking distance of the building. The new use of the building is not expected to to create more parking demand than can be absorbed by available on-street parking on Brown Street.
City Plan staff recommended that the board approve the special exception. But because it calls for the adjustment of required on-site parking, the City Plan Commission must make a recommendation before the BZA can take a vote.
Talbot (at right in photo): Another hoop to jump after this.
Lloyd seemed to have the vote of what would be a couple of the studio’s nearest neighbors. Vito Luciani, who owns a building at 111 Water St., told the board Tuesday evening that he was for it. Jim Consiglio, who lives directly across from the building at 3 Brown St. told the board that he and his mom are for it too.
“We welcome the renovation of this property and think it is a step in the right direction,” he said.
Deputy Director of Zoning Tom Talbot said that Lloyd would have to be clear about whether he’s seeking warehouse and office space, which would be a permitted use for the property that is in the BA zone. But if he plans to make it partially studio space, he would have to seek a special permit from the City Plan commission to change the use.
(The above video shows Lloyd at work in his studio, digitizing a recovered reel-to-reel tape of a 1969 Black Panther torture interrogation.)
It sounds like the definition of a hardship if the existing building covers the entire property and especially foregiveable if this hardship is a creature of the city (which allowed the adjacent parking lot to be split off).