NY New Developments
Starchitect Norman Foster’s plans for the renovation of the New York Public Library flagship on Fifth Avenue were revealed, with features including a multi-level atrium, Bryant Park views and a teen center. Project construction will kick off this summer and will be completed in 2018. A long-stalled Midtown construction site has started construction again on a residential project at 325 Lexington Avenue. Permits for construction were renewed in July 2011. The new plans call for a ground floor restaurant and bar, 103 apartments with two full-floor penthouses, a club room and a fitness center. Construction may have begun on Gary Barnett’s new West 57th Street tower. Extell Development filed a permit for the building. Scaffolding was spotted going up around the final property in the new luxury tower’s footprint – 1780 Broadway. When completed the 1,550-foot mixed-use residential building, located at 217-225 West 57th Street, will be the tallest of its kind in the city. Current plans call for the hotel to occupy floors seven through 12, while a Nordstroms department store will have its entrance on the 57th Street side.Developer Forest City Ratner today the first chassis, a steel box that will form a sort of foundation, in the ground for the Atlantic Yards’ first residential building, which will be the world’s tallest modular tower. The City Council has proposed anti-flooding legislation that affects requirements for new and renovated buildings, in an effort to buttress New York’s ability to weather future “superstorms” such as Hurricane Sandy.
CIM Group and developer Harry Macklowe broke ground on 432 Park Avenue, one of Manhattan’s most-hyped new condo projects. The 1,395-foot-tall residential tower, on Park Avenue between 56th and 57th streets, is slated to be the tallest residential building in the city. But one restaurant near Grand Central has worked a deal to return to its original location once the new hotel taking over the site is completed in 2015,. Ben & Jack’s Steak House, at 219 East 44th Street , will close at the end of the month, only to return once InterContinental Hotels Group’s new health conscious hotel brand, EVEN, is opened. The restaurant will even provide guests with room service Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to incentivize large office construction on the East Side of Midtown will require some of the city’s most aggressive developers to convince smaller property owners to deal.
Extell Development, Starwood, Solow Development and the Durst Organization own pieces of parcels that would need to be assembled to conform to the proposed upzoning. They will need to acquire parcels from much smaller organizations, such as Brause Realty, Samson Management and Kensico Properties. Related Companies Chairman Stephen Ross said Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to increase the density of office buildings in Midtown East will have little impact on development in the area. “What is really going to happen in New York is that the growth won’t occur in that area,” Ross said. “The growth is more likely to occur on the Far West Side,” in the Hudson Yards neighborhood, where Related this month broke ground on the first part of the 26-acre development. The 72,000-square-foot retail space at 420 Fifth Avenue, is now full with sports equipment store Golfsmith International Holdings taking the last remaining space. Developments on Hudson River Park’s Pier 40 were once the park’s largest single source of funding, but now that over-development and storm damage are causing the pier to sink, the floating 14-acre area has become more of a liability than an asset. Douglas Durst, chairman of Friends of Hudson River Park, and the organization’s vice president, Ben Korman, have stepped down after failing to find support for their plans to renovate the pier among the Friends of Hudson River Park or the park’s trust. The two board members were also major financial backers of the park. Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation has put out an RFP for a residential building on John Street. The group was waiting to issue the RFP until the real estate market improved. The residential building will have up to 130 units over 101,000-square-feet, and will rise up to 130 feet tall. The site allows for retail on the ground floor and up to 110 parking spaces.
The proposals must include green elements and incorporate flood-protection measures. Revenue generated by the building will be put towards park maintenance The national retail chain presence in New York City is on the upswing, by increasing 2.4 percent, year-over-year, to 7,190 stores from 7,019. This is the fifth consecutive year to see a net increase in national chains across the city’s five boroughs. Faced with a lawsuit and setback by Hurricane Sandy, the online grocery store, FreshDirect, is scaling back its plans for its new Bronx facility to approximately nine-acres. FreshDirect is being sued by the community group, South Bronx Unite, which opposes the company’s plan to relocate its headquarters from Long Island City to the South Bronx, claiming that a parking lot violates land use and other regulations. Two Trees Management has begun the process of meeting with North Brooklyn residents to discuss the development of the Domino Sugar factory on the Williamsburg waterfront. The developers most recently met with the community to get local residents’ input on the 3.2 acres of open space that’s part of the redevelopment plan.
Officials from New York’s Economic Development Corporation told residents from the North Star Neighborhood Association yesterday that there is plentiful interest in redeveloping the BP gas station site on 110th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, The EDC sought proposals in June to build on the 13,500-square-foot space at 2040 Frederick Douglass Boulevard. “We think we got a very robust response showing there is interest in developing the site,” Rudin Management is considering all its options for the badly storm-damaged 110 Wall Street, including a conversion to residences or a hotel. The company canceled its office tenants’ leases after Hurricane Sandy, citing the damage to the building. The Garment District is looking to rebrand — and possibly rename . The neighborhood’s business improvement district, known as the Fashion Center Business Improvement District, has hired the Brand Union, a branding agency, to help rethink and potentially remake its image.
The BID is considering both a new name and a new symbol for the area. New New York City buildings are about to get a little greener thanks to a new recycling mandate approved by the City Council. The new bill, which must still be signed by Mayor Bloomberg, seeks to bring New York up to the recycling standards of other major world cities. New Yorkers now recycle only about 15 percent of their residential waste The Land Use Committee of Manhattan Community Board 11 is close to selecting a rezoning plan for a 60-block swath of East Harlem, and the planners involved are looking into a hybrid plan, or a separate proposal for different sections of the neighborhood. East Harlem not been rezoned since the early 1960s. After an extended rough patch — some would say that patch lasted five years — the market for condominiums in New York City is coming back to life. Projects such as 56 Leonard Street downtown and the Zeckendorfs’ 50 United Nations Plaza have broken ground or re-started after years of difficulties, and China-based Xinyuan Real Estate announced plans to build 200 condos on the Williamsburg waterfront. Between 15 to 18 million square feet of Lower Manhattan commercial space remains closed five weeks after Hurricane Sandy, the New York Times reported, but there’s an added complication: phones are still disconnected. Verizon won’t finish their work until May. If Verizon can get service back soon, then 95 to 98 percent of the still vacant offices can be back up and running by the beginning of next year, but that timetable depends entirely on Verizon’s repair work.
Preservationists and three Manhattan community boards are warning that Mayor Bloomberg’s massive Midtown East rezoning plan would harm the properties that are most representative of the neighborhood’s historic character. The Municipal Arts Society and the New York Landmarks Conservancy identified some 12 buildings — including the Yale Club, the Barclay Hotel and the Graybar Building — that were most likely to be demolished if the rezoning passes. “What one would not want to have happen is for the district to become solely a place about Class A office space,” the Society’s President Vin Cipolla . Larry Silverstein has received two formal offers from tenants looking for space in 3 World Trade Center, potentially allowing the developer to move ahead with the project. Group M, an advertising and media firm, and law firm White & Case. Group M had already been in talks to secure a 550,000-square-foot section of the tower, while White & Case is in the market for roughly 500,000 square feet. With 1.1 million square feet of the 2.8 million-square-foot tower committed to tenants, Silverstein would become eligible for public funding of the project from the city, state and Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. Brookfield Office Properties’ One New York Plaza is planning a gut renovation of its 31,000-square-foot, sub-level retail concourse, known as the Plaza Shops. One New York Plaza — Lower Manhattan’s southernmost skyscraper , was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, pumping out some 23-million-gallons of water after the storm. Facebook’s is opening in Silicon Alley a new design office. This is the first time Facebook will operate a design unit outside Silicon Valley and it plans to add local designers to its 150-person New York staff. Google is looking across the street to the Chelsea Market building for more office space. Google is in talks to take about 75,000 square feet at 95 Ninth Avenue, The company leased 95,000 square feet at 95 Ninth, already an expansion from their previous space, about two months ago. Manhattan Community Board 4 is set to support the planned transformation of Pier 57 into a retail hub on the Hudson River. Located on the waterfront between West 16th and West 17th streets, the current bus depot would become a space hosting about 260,000 square feet of restaurants and retail built inside recycled shipping containers. The board is set to vote on whether to send a letter supporting the project to the City Planning Commission, which will also have a say on whether the proposal goes ahead. “The redevelopment of Pier 57 is a crucial element in the ongoing revitalization of Hudson River Park.
