[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/307089970

City Hall: Supersize midtown's east side
Massive upzoning effort to encourage bigger towers for aging office district

By Theresa Agovino
July 8, 2012

With 14 Fortune 500 headquarters clustered in the office towers on midtown's east side near Grand Central Terminal—the greatest density of such companies in the U.S.—the area looms large in the international business world. But fearing that midtown east's aging building stock will diminish the district's corporate allure, the Bloomberg administration is finalizing a rezoning blueprint that would encourage office teardowns and the construction of even bigger commercial towers with premium amenities. It may also include a proposal said to be favored by Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden: turning Vanderbilt Avenue, the short block west of Grand Central, into a pedestrian-only street.

City officials are set to release details this week of the proposal to upzone the area with 80 million square feet of office space. Sources said officials hadn't determined the size limits on new buildings, although discussions considered expansions ranging from 22% to more than 100% greater than what's now allowed, depending on location and current zoning. The larger sizes would likely be allowed only on midtown avenues and on the streets closest to Grand Central, which sits beneath more than 1 million square feet of unused air rights.

The hope is that the rezoning will trigger the building of enough new Class A towers to keep the city competitive in the global market for top talent and industry in the coming decades. Such buildings could include features like high-ceilinged, column-free floor plans and plentiful sources of power to run high-tech operations. Only two new office buildings have been constructed in the midtown east zone in recent years: 300 and 510 Madison Ave. The average age of buildings in the zone is 73 years, with 80% of the structures older than 50. In contrast, the average age of a London office building is 43, according to the city's study; in Chicago's Loop, only 54% of the buildings are older than 50.

The city's zoning rules determine a crucial development yardstick called a floor-to-area ratio, or FAR, which ultimately determines the size of a building that can be constructed on a site. In midtown east, some vintage towers built before the current zoning went into effect in 1961 exceed what could be built there now. That means if a landlord demolished one of them, only a smaller property could replace it. To help reverse that development disincentive, sources said the planning department had discussed raising the area's FAR to 18 to 26 from the current 12 to 15.

It's possible that buildings in midtown east could grow even larger than what the city's revised zoning permits. That's because there are 1.35 million square feet of unused air rights above Grand Central that developers could conceivably buy to boost the size of their buildings. Rezoning alone would not spark a mad dash for the wrecking balls. Landlords need deep pockets to go without rent revenue for several years as they empty a building of tenants, demolish the structure, rebuild bigger and better, then lease the place anew. Most owners likely will be content keeping their solid if stodgy midtown properties as they are.

Still, some midtown buildings could take swifter advantage of the new zoning opportunities than others. L&L Holding has said it plans to tear down 425 Park Ave. after tenants' leases expire in 2015, for instance. Advertising agency Y&R owns and occupies all of 285 Madison Ave., which is for sale. A new owner could opt to tear down the 1920s-era structure, where a woman died last year in a grisly elevator accident, and start over.

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http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/m...tent=Manhattan

GCT street plaza

By CHUCK BENNETT and HELEN FREUND
July 9, 2012

The city is looking at turning tiny Vanderbilt Avenue next to Grand Central Terminal into the next car-free “pedestrian plaza,” under a plan being touted by the Department of City Planning and the Department of Transportation. The five-block stretch, which runs from 42nd to 47th streets, would be transformed under a broader plan to “upzone” office space on Manhattan’s East Side, two sources told The Post.

“The city is examining ways to modernize East Midtown so that over time, it will maintain its stature as a premier business district and job generator for New York City,” a city planning official said.

Mayor Bloomberg wants the whole project under way by the time he leaves office in 2014, and details could be released Wednesday at a Community Board 5 meeting.