Monday, June 2, 2014

Midtown east rezone is back on the table

From Crains:

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new timeline for the rezoning of a large swath of east midtown in Manhattan Friday, one that could stretch into 2016 but will allow for one major skyscraper project to get started in the meantime.

Under a special permit to be issued by the city and subject to public review, SL Green will build a 1.6 million-square-foot office building adjacent to Grand Central Terminal on Vanderbilt Avenue between East 42nd and East 43rd streets. The 65-story tower will be 150 feet taller than the Chrysler Building on the other side of the train station.

The project, called 1 Vanderbilt, will include indoor and outdoor public space, as well as underground connections to the subway to help relieve above-ground congestion. The public review process for the surrounding five blocks along Vanderbilt Avenue will begin this fall.

SL Green will invest more than $100 million to improve the flow of commuter traffic through Grand Central Terminal, said Marc Holliday, CEO of the development firm. But City Planning Commission Chairman Carl Weisbrod said the developer's investment in transit infrastructure will be "a lot more than $100 million," and other private firms looking to reap benefits from the rezoning will need to pony up as well.

Mr. Weisbrod confirmed two other development sites as part of the initial Vanderbilt corridor rezoning: a property on Madison Avenue owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street.

The rest of the midtown east rezoning, which was shelved last year when the Bloomberg administration officials could not get midtown Councilman Daniel Garodnick to sign on, won’t kick off until at least the spring of 2015, and will likely extend into the following year. Mr. de Blasio tapped Mr. Garodnick and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer to oversee a lengthy community review process before the mayor unveils a plan for the 70-block rezoning.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Super dumb.

Let's make it easy to demolish existing historic skyscrapers that define New York's unique architectural heritage so that disposable, forgettable glass spindles can take their place.

Why the hell should we do this? So that we can compete with... Dubai? Half empty planned cities in China? Guess what. They're competing with US. They wish they had what we ALREADY HAVE.

Hey NYC gov idiots, what real estate concern has you in their back pocket? The more loudly you support this rezoning the more guilty you look.

JQ said...

The Blaz still communist?Because this leftover proposal to benefit another dinosaur property owner for some bogus green initiative and more shopping malls sure reeks of runaway capitalism at it's finest.

it's just never going to stop,this town is going to collapse under the weight of collective greed and stupidity.