LONG BEACH, NY — The Long Beach Zoning Board of Appeals will meet Thursday night, hearing from applicants who want variances from up and down the city's zoning code to be applied to their properties across the city. Among those applicants is 73rd Meridian Partners, the Manhattan-based firm hoping to redevelop the former Hebrew Academy of Long Beach site at 530 W. Broadway.
The developers for the former Hebrew Academy site are seeking variances from height, building area, front yard, side yard and density ordinances in the city's zoning code as they progress with a plan that would construct an eight-story building.
According to the zoning board, the development would feature a ground-level parking garage with 162 spaces, and a mezzanine level garage with 51 more parking spaces, 10 residential units, two mechanical rooms and a mail room.
Atop the parking garage "podium," as the board called it, would be a pair of six-story residential towers at the east and west ends of the garages. Those towers, officials said, would hold eight apartments per floor, for a total of 96 apartments.
Finally, board documents show that there would be a two-story structure between the towers to house a club room, a cafe, a fitness center, a theater space and a multi-purpose room, with a patio outside holding a swimming pool and a pair of dog runs.
The apartment units, documents show, would be divided between 16 one-bedroom units, 42 two-bedroom units and 48 three-bedroom units.
The plan would also see the demolition of the existing Hebrew Academy campus, which features a school building, four inground pools, pavement and landscaping. In board documents from the spring, members of the board described the property as a "high-profile waterfront property which has been vacant for many years."
According to the board, the existing facility was last used in 2017, when the school was operating on the property as a tax-exempt institution. There is no payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement included in the 530 West Long Beach plan, which board documents say could be a boost to the city's tax base.
The board will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, an hour earlier than usual, to leave ample time for the 530 West Broadway hearing.
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