North Adams Planners Get Apartment Plans for Porter Block
The second and third floors would have three apartments in the same layout. Plans by Barry Berg Architect of New York City.
Buntic's plans for the 125-year-old structure will go before the Planning Board on Monday.
The Long Island City, N.Y., investor had come under fire from the community members over the slow pace of work in the North Adams buildings he's purchased over the past five years or so. Buntic also owns the Dowlin Block on Main Street and has put in a bid for the Mohawk Theater.
He explained at last week's City Council meeting that his plans had been slowed by a number of issues, including his partners in the two buildings. He said he now owns both properties free and clear and is ready to begin work.
Three years ago, he and then partner Michael Gazal had received approval for a boutique hotel in the Porter Block. While some work was done inside to stabilize the building, not much has happened in the past two years. Buntic said he is now looking to develop the much larger and more accessible Dowlin Block as a hotel and turn the long empty Porter building into apartments.
According to plans submitted to the Planning Board, the structure will have three apartments on each of the second and third level. Two will be two-bedroom units and the third will be one-bedroom. The two-bedrooms will be just over 1,000 square feet and the one-bedroom 761 square feet. The larger units will both have two full-bathrooms.
There will be two fourth-floor apartments will be extended upward with a master suite each on a fifth level. These larger apartments are proposed to be 1,300 and 1,500 square feet with masters of nearly 600 square feet for the smaller apartment and 565 square feet for the larger.
The fourth-floor apartments will have two bedrooms and two full bathrooms and a third room that can be an office or bedroom. Access to the master suites is by circular staircase. They will both have large bathrooms, a sauna, walk-in closets and views across the city.
Access to all but the fifth-floor will be by a common staircase on the North Church Street side of the building.
The plans were drawn up by Barry Berg Architect of Brooklyn, N.Y., the same firm that created the plans for the hotel in the building.
"The brick exterior of the building will be re-pointed and the windows will be replaced with insulated units in the same characteristic blue color. The cornice will be restored and repainted a matching blue as well," Berg wrote in the application. "The apartments will have individually controlled heating and air-conditioning and all electrical service
will be replaced as well as all plumbing. infrastructure. Accessibility, energy efficiency and sustainability provisions will be implemented according to state and local requirements."
The four-story brick building at 34-36 Eagle St. has been vacant for years. It was purchased in 2014 by a New York woman who was unable to bring her vision of the building to life. Gazal and Buntic purchased the property in November 2016 for $60,000. They bought the Dowlin Block on Main Street six months later.
The city has assessed the property on which the building sits as worth more than the structure: $71,900 for the land and $20,900 for the building — almost a $1,000 less than it was valued in 2018. The block currently contains 11 units, with nine rooms and four bedrooms. Buntic said he's put about $120,000-$140,000 into it so far for stabilization, demolition and asbestos removal. Much of the interior has been removed.
The Tower & Porter Block takes its name from the two plumbers who built it, according to local historian Paul W. Marino, who noted their faded advertisement can still be made out on the building's south wall.
When the building was sold in 2014, Marino said it was notable for its architecture and the cupola on the east side. The building's fire escape on Church Street, with its ringed stars on each step and a counterbalance that runs through a wooden shaft, is one of the few left in the city.
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