New Bossert Hotel owners to reduce no. of rooms, will prohibit music on rooftop terrace

October 24, 2012 By Linda Collins Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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Owners of the Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn Heights have agreed to reduce the proposed number of rooms from 302 to 280 and to restrict the operating hours and music levels of the rooftop terrace bar.
Michael Sillerman, an attorney with Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, who is the spokesperson for the owners (Clipper Equity, now operating as Bossert LLC), made the announcement at a hearing yesterday before the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), noting that the owners believe their agreement is “a model of responsiveness.”
“We have agreed to the prohibition of all outside music on the terrace. We have agreed to limit the number of people to 60 outside and to closing at 10 p.m.,” he said.
But despite having agreed to these conditions, residents of adjacent buildings, members of the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA) and others, were not satisfied.
The BHA remains unchanged in its opposition to any amplified music anywhere on the top floor, inside or out, a spokesperson said. And it still opposes increasing the number of rooms to more than the 224 created by the former owners, the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society.
Some residents who spoke said they needed time to analyze the most recent traffic and trip generation studies provided by representatives of the applicant; others expressed concerns that there is no guarantee that the meeting rooms will be used for weddings and special events, attracting more people and traffic to the site.
BSA commissioners, themselves, asked for additional financial analyses and additional comparisons with comparable hotels in the area.
Thus, the Bossert’s new owners have been asked to return to the BSA for a third hearing.
Meenakshi Srinivasan, BSA chair, set the date for the next, and most likely final, public hearing for Nov. 20.
“My preference is that we move this along. Everyone wants to see this resolved, but I think we need one more hearing on this,” she said.
She also said, during a somewhat contentious exchange between Sillerman and a speaker, “We have enough information that we could make a decision now, but we’d like to see the two sides reach an agreement.”
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