Downtown Office-To-Residential Proposal Clears City Plan

A Greenwich developer cleared the last administrative hurdle in his plans to convert the upper levels of two adjacent Chapel Street buildings into 29 market-rate apartments.

That happened at the most recent monthly City Plan Commission meeting on the second floor of City Hall.

At the end of a jam-packed, nearly five-hour meeting, commissioners voted unanimously in support of East River Partners LLC’s plans to convert upper-level office space at 742 – 750 Chapel St. and 754 Chapel St. into a total of 29 apartments.

The project is the second proposed residential development at that very corner from East River Partners, which is run by Greenwich developer (and New Haven native) Joseph Cohen. East River Partners also plans to build a six-story, 60-unit mixed-use apartment complex atop a surface parking lot around the corner at 294 – 302 State St.

“Good!” City Plan Commision Chair Ed Mattison said after voting in support of the Chapel Street development proposals at the meeting, which took place last Wednesday evening. ​“That block needed some work.”

Local architect Wayne Garrick and Langan Engineering Vice President Timothy Onderko walked the commissioners through the proposal, which consists entirely of interior construction except for the addition of an emergency stairwell and covered bicycle parking in the back of the building.

East River Partners plans to convert 20,433 square feet of existing vacant office space on the second, third, and fourth floors of 742 – 750 Chapel and the second and third floors of 754 Chapel into 29 residential units: four one-bedrooms, two two-bedrooms, and 23 studio apartments.

“Both buildings are on the Historic Register,” Garrick said. ​“We have no plans to adjust the facade.”

The first floors of the buildings are currently occupied by commercial tenants like a Subway sandwich shop and the U.S. Postal Service. At September’s Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) meeting, Cohen said that he does not have any plans to move out any of the current commercial tenants.