PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Potential Hotel Site on Webster Clarified

By HEATHER HADDON

A developer is considering building a hotel on Webster Avenue near PS/MS 20, though not in the location previously reported in the Norwood News.

The News reported in the previous issue on rumors that Holiday Inn might be coming to a large open lot just above Mosholu Parkway on the west side of Webster Avenue. But the site in question is across the street, just up the way from PS/MS 20.

A Long Island-based developer purchased 3070 Webster Ave., a warehouse located between East 202nd and 203rd streets, last year for $550,000. The 5,500 square foot structure is in the process of being demolished. The company filed plans with the Buildings Department earlier this month to erect a 5-story hotel at the site with 1,224 square feet of parking space, which could be constructed underground.

The owner, Sam Chang, says he’s now not sure about the hotel plans. “The spot might be too small for one,” said Chang. “We don’t have a 100 percent idea yet.”

Chang owns a hotel in Long Island, and has also developed condos in Queens and Manhattan. He’s not considering housing for the lot because it’s commercially zoned.

The site is flanked by 1- and 2-story homes. Virginia Hekimian, who lives just south of it, thinks a hotel would be intrusive. “You can’t even put a pencil between [the lots],” said Hekimian, who has lived in the house all her life with her brother. “We don’t want this.”

The current permit does not specify the type of hotel it will be. Under city housing code, the development can be hotel, motel, lodging house or rooming house.

Hekimian received a letter last year about the proposed hotel, and has been worried about it since. She says demolition workers indicated it might become a rooming house.

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