CB8 Impressed by Eliot Spitzer’s Now-Taller 5th Avenue Project

Former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer’s family development company, Spitzer Enterprises, is revising a longstanding demolish-and-rebuild luxury project at 985 Fifth Ave. to make it one story taller. Specifically, the building would now extend to roughly 20 stories, or 264 feet tall.

Spitzer, who left office in 2008 after it was revealed that he had patronized a VIP escort service numerous times (earning him the moniker “Love Gov”), succeeded his father, Bernard, at the family business after stepping down. Bernard happened to build the current building at 985 Fifth Ave., and his son happened to live there during both his governorship and his political nadir.

If an advisory vote of approval issued by a Community Board 8 subcommittee on Oct. 20 is any indication, the project shouldn’t face overwhelming community opposition; the measure passed by a vote of 7-2.

Ward Dennis, a consultant on the project, made it plain that the “City of Yes” zoning overhaul—which passed last December—had slightly changed the project’s scope, namely by increasing the proposed height.

The additional floor, Dennis elaborated, “allows us to sculpt the top of the building, and make the overall crown of the building, much more symmetrical.”

The height will essentially be created by adding 12,500 square feet of additional floor area throughout the building itself, as well as by making the rear yard shallower. Crucially, Spitzer will also need to pay into an affordable-housing fund, which is supposed to spur offsite affordable development within a half-mile of the current project.

As CB8 acknowledged, the project has been in the works since 2023. The younger Spitzer only formally acquired the building in 2022, for $10 million.

Lo Vandervald, who runs the local preservationist group Carnegie Hill Neighbors, was perhaps surprisingly effusive. He called the proposed changes “very salutary,” and praised the “huge improvement in symmetry,” despite the height increase.

Elizabeth Ashby, a board member, echoed Vandervald’s comments. “I think it’s a great improvement,” she said. “[It’s] more symmetrical, and fits better in with the buildings on Fifth Avenue.”

Alida Camp, another board member, commented on why she’d be one of the two dissenting “no” votes. While offering compliments on the technical design of the proposal, she pointedly described the project as a giveaway to the rich: “I cannot believe that this is what the ‘City of Yes’ intended, to provide a way for wealthy developers to build more apartments for wealthier people, at the expense of people in the neighborhood.”

Camp also described the height increase as “massive,” despite its “beautiful louvers.”

Spitzer abruptly logged onto the virtual Oct. 20 meeting to directly answer a question about whether he considered himself an “environmentalist.”

”Overwhelmingly, yes,” Spitzer said. He added that the design of his company’s proposed building was “exquisite,” joking that the existing building erected by his father was “not exquisite.”

Yet Spitzer noted that, despite the less exquisite current digs, his father had donated “half of his estate” to a foundation that supported environmentalism. Appearing to briefly choke up with emotion, he said that he was pursuing the project in honor of his father.