Big changes for this whole area are on the way!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...FTForthStories
NY REAL ESTATE RESIDENTIAL FEBRUARY 11, 2011 Hell's Kitchen Seeks Heaven-Sent Rezoning Article Stock Quotes Comments By SHELLY BANJO
As construction of skyscrapers and lofty condominiums begins along the 26-acre Hudson rail yards project, residents of next-door Hell's Kitchen area are looking to spruce up their own neighborhood, with an eye toward also keeping it affordable.
The community board that includes Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, has teamed up with the Department of City Planning on a plan to rezone 18 blocks of the district. The aim is to make it less of a manufacturing zone and more of a mixed-use community, with a range of residential, retail and community space.
City planners and neighborhood residents believe they can better handle the area's anticipated growth if they begin planning for it now.
"With all the tall buildings going up around the city and plans for the luxury skyscrapers of the Hudson Yards encroaching on the neighborhood, Clinton became concerned," says Robert Benfatto, district manager of Community Board 4.
On March 2, the community board intends to hold a public hearing to present the plan, which could create 1,600 residential units and reduce the amount of commercial space in the area, according to an environmental impact review from the city. The plan would limit the height of new buildings. It also is intended to preserve historic buildings, create affordable housing and prohibit new hotels and entertainment establishments.
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Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street Journal
A car wash at 46th Street.
The zoning changes would apply to the area between 10th and 12th avenues from 43rd to 55th streets, covering part of a diverse area that began as a rural riverfront in the 1800s. Later, it became the industrial locus of tanneries and manufacturing companies, as well as a hub of Prohibition breweries.
Strict zoning rules had long kept Hell's Kitchen a mostly industrial area with a mix of storage facilities and warehouses, car-repair shops and strip clubs. Zoning rules were relaxed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, ushering in new developments like the Hearst Tower on 56th Street, Offices also opened by companies like advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and retailers Prada and Kenneth Cole Productions.
Consolidated Edison Co. and FedEx Corp. continue to operate in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, large luxury buildings are on the rise, including developer Larry Silverstein's twin 60-story Silver Towers as well as the 505 on West 47th Street and Two Trees' Clinton Park on 11th Avenue, which looks to complete the first phase of a 900-unit complex later this year.
Just on the outskirts of the planned rezoning district, on 57th Street, development company Durst Fetner Residential unveiled plans this week to build an expansive, pyramid-shaped luxury apartment building rising 450 feet. The new building will include 770,000 square feet of retail space and a community organization, which Durst says could be the International Center of Photography. A center spokesman declined to comment.
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Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street Journal
11th Avenue looking northwest.
As longtime residents watch the luxury high-rises descend on their neighborhood and see the expiration of current affordable-housing provisions, many worry about preserving the fabric of the neighborhood. They say the 80-20 tax-exempt bond program, which sets aside 20% of a development for affordable units, won't sustain the neighborhood for the long term because the provisions promoting affordability are temporary.
"We're a community that's been undergoing a ton of rapid change and we don't want to see another large building go up without permanent affordable housing," Sarah Desmond, co-head of Community Board 4's Clinton/Hell's Kitchen land-use committee, said this week.
With the influx of housing and development, concerns over space for the neighborhood's school children has become top priority for a neighborhood that is at risk of lacking seats for more than 1,000 students by 2019, according to a 2009 report by New York City Comptroller John Liu.
"Where are these kids going to go to school over here?" says Tom Cayler, a resident and member of the West Side Neighborhood Alliance, a community group. By the time the new planned schools are built, "we think they will already be overcrowded," he says.
Community members also bemoan the dwindling amount of open space and parks. "We want to know what can the public get that's green," said city Councilwoman Gale Brewer, after a presentation on plans for the new Durst building.
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Even though the community board and the Department of City Planning are jointly sponsoring the rezoning, the push and pull between the city and residents over approval won't be simple. Neighborhood groups are seeking to bulk up provisions to include more family-sized affordable housing, provide residents with protections against being pushed out by landlords and augment the area's schools and open space.
Four years in the making, the formal rezoning process is just beginning. After the community board's public hearing in March, the rezoning proposal has to go through the Manhattan borough president's office, the City Planning Commission and finally the City Council before obtaining approval.
Write to Shelly Banjo at
shelly.banjo@wsj.com