A contentious, ongoing legal battle playing out on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that united community activist groups, preservationists, and elected officials in opposition to the height of a 52-story condo tower at 200 Amsterdam has reached a conclusion—one spares the completed luxury high-rise from a rare decollation and has left opponents dismayed.

As reported by the Commercial Observer late last week, the New York Court of Appeals denied attempts to overturn a previous ruling that upheld the building permits for the 670-foot-tall tower designed by Elkus Manfredi and developed by SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America. This means that the residential skyscraper, which stands as the tallest on the Upper West Side, will not have to retroactively shave off several of its top floors—potentially up to 20 or more—due to alleged zoning violations, as per a February 2020 New York Supreme Court ruling by Justice W. Franc Perry against the developers that yanked the project’s New York City Department of Buildings (DOB)-issued permits. That ruling was overturned on appeal this past March in a decision that the plaintiff, the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS), referred to as “absurd and unreasonable.”

As noted by Real Estate Weekly, sales at 200 Amsterdam resumed this past March following the appellate court ruling and most recently, a pair of penthouses with sky-high price tags of $19.3 and $17.5 million went under contract. Located between 67th and 68th streets, the 112-unit tower features interiors by CetraRuddy and over 20,000-square-feet of amenity space including a saltwater pool, yoga and pilates studio, private dining room and library, and a Lincoln Center-inspired kids play space. (All residences come with a year-long complimentary membership to the neighboring Lincoln Center.)