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Waterfront redeveloper iStar Financial plans to build 225 new residential units on the block just west of the unfinished Esperanza high rise site, city attorney Frederick Raffeto told the city council at its Wednesday night meeting.

The subject block is bound by Kingsley and Bergh streets between 3rd and 4th avenues. The site was suggested by iStar as an alternative location for the next phase of residential construction, instead of a site required under a 2010 arbitration ruling, Raffeto said.

The arbitration ruling covered a broad range of waterfront issues between the city and Asbury Partners [iStar owns a majority stake in Asbury Partners]. Under the ruling, iStar was originally required to move forward with a project on the block bound by Grand, Sewall, Monroe and Heck streets once half of the units at the VIVE site were “under contract for sale.”

However, the city council voted unanimously Wednesday to allow iStar to instead begin the next phase of construction at the block west of the Esperanza site. The redeveloper does not yet own all the properties at the site where the arbitration ruling had required the next phase of construction to begin, and one of the properties would need to be condemned, Raffeto said.

The city and iStar may make agreements to change the terms of the arbitration ruling by mutual consent.

Preliminary discussions with the city call for the site to be a mix of side-by-side townhomes and condominiums similar to the Wesley Grove complex, said Donald Sammet, the city’s redevelopment and planning director. Within the next 30 days, iStar will submit design plans for the site to the city’s technical review committee, he said.

“We haven’t seen any plans as of yet, but iStar calls them town homes,” said Sammet.

An apartment complex on the northwest corner of the block is not part of the site plan and will remain intact,  he said.

The Sun left a message earlier this afternoon with iStar seeking comment.

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