Court Square condo project is is quite huge

From LIC Post:

The developer of a 67-story building that will contain 802 condo units got the go ahead from the state attorney general’s office to start selling units.

The building will be the tallest in Queens to date, with the total value of all units in the 100 percent condo-building to exceed $1 billion, according to the offering plan. The units are expected to begin closing in July 2020.

The development, called the Skyline Tower and located at 23-15 44th Drive, will consist of about 30 percent of the condo stock in Long Island City when it is complete, according to Patrick W. Smith, an agent with Stribling & Associates who focuses on new development and who is heading up the company’s first office in Queens.

It's the skyscrapers, stupid!

Dirty Buildings Report by Alexander Kaufman on Scribd

From Huffington Post:

The 90-floor tower nicknamed the “Oligarch’s Erection” is the gaudy centerpiece of Manhattan’s Billionaire’s Row ― a place where a corrupt Nigerian oil tycoon set a $51 million record for the biggest foreclosure in the city’s history in 2017 and a Silicon Valley tech mogul bought the most expensive home ever sold in New York for $100.5 million in 2018.

But 157 West 57th Street is part of another, equally exclusive club that includes Trump Tower, the Trump International Hotel & Tower, the Kushner family’s 666 Fifth Avenue, the ritzy Baccarat Hotel and Residences and 15 Central Park West, where Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein lives.

That club is the biggest contributors to carbon dioxide pollution in New York, where just 2 percent of buildings produce nearly 50 percent of the city’s climate-altering emissions, according to a report released by New York Communities for Change, the People’s Climate Movement NY, the Working Families Party and two other city-based environmental nonprofits.

Dwarfing the Clock Tower

From Curbed:

A new rendering has surfaced for the massive residential tower taking shape at 29-37 41st Avenue, adjacent Long Island City’s historic Clock Tower, revealing what the Handel Architects-designed rental, dubbed Queens Plaza Park, is bringing to the landscape.

Once the building tops out at 63 stories, it’ll hold the title for the tallest residential building in Queens, though it could quickly be dethroned by a project taking shape at 23-15 44th Drive that could reach a whopping 78 stories.

Huge project proposed for Anable Basin

From Curbed:

A longtime Long Island City property owner is seeking a waterfront rezoning that will allow it to bring a 5.8 million gross square foot mixed-use development to the area surrounding Anable Basin, just north of the Hunter’s Point South redevelopment.

Under the proposal by Plaxall Realty, 14.7 acres would be rezoned to accommodate 5,000 condos and rentals, 335,000 square feet of creative production and light manufacturing space, 3.1 acres of public waterfront esplanade, and up to 30,000 square feet of community space. It would also bring a 700-plus seat public school to the neighborhood, outside of the rezoning area.

Park vs. towers in LIC

From LIC Post:

The city’s decision to appoint a for-profit developer to build 1,000 high-rise apartments on public land along the Long Island City waterfront was universally panned by residents at last week’s Community Board 2 meeting.

Earlier this summer, the city—through the Economic Development Corp– announced that it had selected TF Cornerstone, the Manhattan-based real estate firm, to develop a 4.5 acre site near 44th Drive and 5th Street. The project could bring 1,000 apartments, 400,000-square-feet of commercial space, and a school for 600 students at an estimated cost of $925 million. One-quarter of the apartments will be classified as “affordable.”

Residents who spoke at CB2’s monthly meeting in Sunnyside on Thursday said there was little need for more high-end, luxury towers in Hunters Point, especially when they’d be built on city-owned land by a for-profit developer.

Several residents said the site should be converted into a park.

Hi-rise residential buildings need PA systems

From NBC:

There's a push for an increased safety measure in New York City high-rise buildings that experts say could save lives. Pei-Sze Cheng reports.

How's that for height?

From NBC:

Residents in a quaint, townhouse-filled Brooklyn neighborhood are furious over a developer's plan to build the borough's tallest high-rise building in their backyard. Lori Bordonaro reports.

Could a Grenfell situation happen here?

From CBS 2:

The entire 24-hour Grenfell Tower was engulfed in flames in less than an hour, and the fire was the deadliest in Britain in more than a century.

With so many skyscrapers in New York City, could a similar thing happen? And what should people do in the event of such an emergency?

CBS2’s Elise Finch found out.

The cause of the Grenfell Tower fire is still being investigated. But early reports suggest an external building material called cladding may be to blame.

In a recent renovation, insulation sandwiched between two aluminum panels was used on the building’s façade, and it is that material that is believed to have accelerated the blaze.

Similar cladding is used on many New York buildings – including high-rises. So could a similar fire happen in New York?

Developer wants to build on kids' playground

From NBC:

Plans to build a 47-story high-rise on top of a playground on the Upper East Side has residents upset: a developer wants to place it smack in the middle of the Holmes Towers public housing complex. Erica Byfield reports.

Lawsuit over Clock Tower

From Curbed:

Last December, the development site behind Long Island City’s landmarked Clock Tower sold for $173.5 million to the Durst Organization. The beneficiaries of that sale were the previous owners of the site, Property Markets Group (PMG) and the Hakim Organization, who once intended for a massive skyscraper to rise at the site.

Now real estate developer Brad Zackson is suing PMG for not moving forward with a development plan on the site, alleging that he helped put the development parcels together, and would have eventually profited from its construction, The Real Deal reports.

Zackson reportedly introduced Hakim to the site in Long Island City, and Hakim in turn brought on PMG to purchase and develop the L-shaped parcel of properties around the Clock Tower into Queens’s tallest residential building.

Plans at one time called for a 77-story tower with 800 apartments, but by last summer, PMG and Hakim were looking to sell the one million square foot site. This, Zackson alleges, is because PMG did not do everything in its power to move the rental and condo project forward.

Developer looking to flip LIC Clock Tower site

From Curbed:

What was once supposed to be the site of the tallest tower outside of Manhattan will be no more, at least for now. Developers Property Markets Group and the Hakim Organization want to sell their 1 million square foot parcel of land behind the clocktower building in Long Island City, The Real Deal reports. Plans here called for a 77-story building standing 914-feet tall and with 800 apartments, making it the tallest building outside of Manhattan when it was announced. That record has since gone to the JDS’ in-development supertall in Downtown Brooklyn. In Queens, a planned 964-foot tower would also have overtaken PMG and Hakim’s building, but that project still seems to be in the planning stages.

DeBlasio trying hard to pass real estate friendly legislation in Albany

From New York Magazine:

Not since the skyscraper boom of the Jazz Age has New York's skyline undergone a transformation as it is now. More than two dozen supertall towers — and counting — are in some stage of planning or construction, and not just for Billionaire's Row. These slender 800-plus-foot cloudbusters are springing up in the Flatiron, the Financial District, the Far West Side, and even Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City. How long before they start sprouting in Riverdale or Tottenville?

How about next week?

That is the fear that erupted after a legislative package came to light in Albany this week that would remove restrictions on the size of residential buildings in the five boroughs. The bills, quietly introduced by Brooklyn Senator Simcha Felder and Harlem Assemblyman Keith Wright, would remove a 1961 density cap placed on residential buildings. Under the new rules — which could be passed before the session ends next Friday — residential buildings in most of the city could be far bigger than they are now. And the biggest backer, besides Big Real Estate, is Mayor Bill de Blasio himself.

The rule change is subtle, affecting the formula called floor-area ratio, or F.A.R., that is used to compute the bulk and size of any building. Right now, residential buildings can have an F.A.R. of up to 12: A 5,000-square-foot lot, say, can be occupied by a 60,000-square-foot building, which usually works out (because of space set aside for setbacks, plazas, and so forth) to 20 to 25 stories. Residential buildings’ F.A.R. is capped by state rather than city law, and has been since 1961, when it was not only written into the zoning code but also enacted in Albany to ensure that it would stick.

The bill as introduced in the Assembly and Senate would eliminate that limit, although developers would have to get anything above 12 approved by the Department of City Planning (as well as the City Council, where public outcry might try to limit things again). That could mean a 40- or 50-story building, or even more, on that same 5,000-square-foot lot. (Yes, we already have residential buildings that are far taller, but building those has required special horse-trading moves, like acquiring the rights from several structures and bundling them.) Many neighborhoods have absolute height restrictions set by the city, but some, like Midtown and Downtown Brooklyn, do not. The de Blasio administration argues that by lifting the cap, developers will be willing to introduce public benefits in their projects, like affordable housing, open space, or infrastructure investment.

Some...New Yorkers in Albany do not share that faith. A group of lawmakers, mostly from the city, have risen up in opposition to the legislation in recent days. While the administration remains supportive of the proposal, it now looks like it will have to wait for the F.A.R. caps to be lifted until another legislative session. “Like everything that happens in Albany, this was being done at the last minute, out of nowhere, with no discussion,” State Senator Liz Krueger said. “And big real estate gets exactly what it wants, and the community loses.”

LIC just gets taller and taller

From LIC Post:

A new development is threatening to take the title of Queens’ tallest building from the Citi tower.

Developers filed plans Saturday for a 79-story, 774-unit building at 23-15 44th Drive, next to the CUNY School of Law and across the street from 1 Court Square.

According to City documents, the building is slated to stand 964 feet tall. It would loom over the Citi tower, currently Queens’ tallest tower, and would also be taller than a building planned at 29-37 41st Ave., which made headlines last year for its potential to become Queens’ new tallest tower at 914 feet.

Developers for the 41st Avenue project, known as Queens Plaza Park, could not immediately be reached for an update on that project or comment on this story.

Even Manhattan is victim of bad zoning

From AM-NY:

New York City is known for its iconic skyline -- one that is changing rapidly, whether New Yorkers like it or not.

Aptly nicknamed "supertalls," a proliferation of buildings towering well over 800 feet have been cropping up in Manhattan and quickly: since 2005, 16 of the city's tallest buildings have broken ground in the borough, with more on the way.

And some neighbors aren't happy.

The area directly south of Central Park has six 1,000 foot-plus buildings complete or in the works, including 432 Park Avenue, currently the world's tallest residential building at 1,396 feet. The Nordstrom Tower on 57th Street plans to overtake it at 1,795 feet by 2018.

"It negatively impacts the infrastructure, because it adds density with no additional investment in the subway system [and] the big issue of the shadows these buildings are casting on Central Park," said Layla Law-Gisiko, who heads Manhattan Community Board 5's "Sunshine Task Force," which is looking into the surge in skyscrapers near the park.

These "supertalls" are possible due to zoning laws last updated in 1961, which don't limit building heights in the Central Park South neighborhoods, among others. Most supertall buildings currently in the works, like the Nordstrom Tower, don't require public input as they are built "as-of-right," and don't need approval from the City Planning Commission or Board of Standards and Appeals.

Transferable air space is also a major force behind the developments, according to Law-Gisiko.

Safety issues at fast-rising tower

From the Queens Chronicle:

You can see the yellow crane and the bright orange construction material from almost anywhere in Queens.

From the Mets-Willets Point No. 7 train station to the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, the towering apartment building under construction atop the Rego Center II shopping mall in Rego Park has become a recognizable piece of the Central Queens skyline.

Despite receiving work permits just over eight months ago, the Vornado Realty-developed 24-story, 314-unit residential structure, designed by SLCE Architects, is already nearing its expected height of 288 feet.

When contacted by the Chronicle, Vornado declined to comment on progress of construction and if there was an estimated date of completion.

The project suffered a slight setback this week, as the Department of Buildings placed a partial stop-work order on the site on Saturday.

According to the order, a rail plummeted from the 24th floor into the netting placed around the seventh floor of the structure after it fell from the crane while it was being hoisted.

Federal and state funds used to fund luxury high rise

Flushing Commons construction begins

"The last nail in Flushing's coffin has been placed." - The Flushing Phantom

There's a $185M tunnel to NJ should we ever need one

From Crains:

Taking shape on Manhattan's West Side is a $185 million, federally funded tunnel that leads to nowhere, for now.

The 800-foot-long, 35-foot-deep concrete trench could someday lead to two new commuter rail tunnels under the Hudson River to New Jersey, if the billions needed to build them ever materialize.

The access tunnel is being built now because the massive Hudson Yards development with six skyscrapers, the tallest being 80 stories, will soon be built on top of it. Trying to dig such a huge trench through the bedrock after those buildings are completed, officials say, would be an engineering and financial nightmare.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was among the lawmakers who pushed Congress to approve Superstorm Sandy relief money for the planned flood-resistant access tunnel, calling it mitigation to protect infrastructure from future storms. But he argued it would have to be built now because the skyscraper developers could not be delayed indefinitely.

"We asked them to delay months, but if we asked them to delay years, they may have said no," said Mr. Schumer, referring to the Related Cos., the main Hudson Yards developers. "Sandy relief funding was there, available, the criteria fit, and the money was getting through quickly and fit the timetable."

The access tunnel is expected to be completed in fall 2015.

Really tall buildings are the price for saving hospital

From Crains:

The highest-scoring bid for Long Island College Hospital captured the support of surrounding Brooklyn communities and elbowed aside a deep field of competitors by pledging to preserve a full-service hospital at the Cobble Hill site.

But that pledge comes at a cost. The would-be real estate developers of the medical campus are counting on high-rise residential towers of a scale never before seen in an area at the heart of Brownstone Brooklyn in order to make the deal pencil out, according to emails among executives involved in the bid.

Brooklyn Health Partners envisions raising at least two soaring residential buildings of up to 50-stories on the campus of low-rise buildings that comprises LICH. BHP has plans to build a 40- to 50-story condo tower on the site of a large parking garage on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Hicks Street that is part of the LICH campus, according to emails from a financier involved in the bid and obtained by Crain's.

The building would be 80% market rate and 20% affordable. The financing group, HKS Capital Partners, indicated in the Brooklyn Health Partners proposal that it plans to raise the roughly $600 million that BHP estimates it will need to acquire the hospital, keep it running and refurbish it, as well as to develop up to 2 million square feet of residential space, according to the emails.

The BHP developers envision raising another tower that could be similar in height and size, but would feature rental apartments, 40% of which would be affordable housing.

BHP currently is negotiating with the State University of New York on a contract to buy the LICH campus. The group scored the highest number of points in a bidding process concluded by SUNY earlier this month. A coalition of community groups and unions sued the school system to revamp its bidding process for LICH, opening the door for BHP’s last round winning bid. As a result of a court settlement, the bids were scored to award higher points for proposals that included building a full-service hospital at LICH.

You'll never have to leave...

From Brownstoner Queens:

Check out the new design planned for 29-26 Northern Boulevard, off of Queens Plaza North in Long Island City. New York IMBY picked up the images from the Stephens B. Jacobs Group website, which also reveal that the 45-story building will be called “The QE7.” It’ll hold studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom rental apartments. Here are details on the amenities, straight from the website:

Imagined as an urban vertical cruise ship, the building offers many amenities, including a two-story fitness center on the 2nd and 4th floors with lounge, gym, spa, climbing wall, pool, and outdoor 5v5 soccer pitch. A covered outdoor half-court basketball court is located on the 38th floor setback, and a rooftop bar and lounge is on the 43rd floor, with access to outdoor terrace space and unobstructed panoramic views.