NEW YORK | City plans BIG rezoning of Midtown

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/s...icle-1.1413219

The shot in the arm East Midtown needs
Mayor Bloomberg explains changes to the major rezoning plan





By Michael R. Bloomberg
July 31, 2013

East Midtown has long been known as one of the world’s premier business districts. At the heart of the district is an iconic train station — Grand Central — that helps keep New York City running. But today, the East Midtown business district and Grand Central Terminal both face challenges that require immediate attention.

Currently, decades-old zoning restrictions in East Midtown effectively prevent the development of any modern commercial buildings. As a result, East Midtown’s office buildings are on average more than 70 years old. Proposals to modernize the zoning regulations have been discussed since the early 1990s, but nothing has happened.

Now, if new and existing businesses can’t find the kind of modern space they need in East Midtown, they may well look outside the five boroughs — and that will mean fewer jobs for New Yorkers and lost tax revenue we need to invest in our schools, parks and neighborhoods. It also means a lost opportunity to locate development where it belongs — close to a major transit hub. At the same time, Grand Central Terminal is too congested, as anyone who has taken the 4/5/6 subway line knows all too well. And the area around Grand Central lacks the features that companies increasingly value, such as open space and pedestrian plazas.

Around our city — from Queens Plaza to Times Square — we have made improvements to the urban landscape that are paying off. Some of our fastest growing companies are flocking to Chelsea and the Flatiron, where spaces like the High Line, Madison Square Park and pedestrian plazas bring green space and places to sit, eat lunch and relax. East Midtown is sorely lacking these amenities. Without them, and without zoning regulations that enable development of cutting-edge commercial office space, companies will increasingly look elsewhere.

Last year, we proposed a solution that addresses both these issues: rezone the area around Ground Central to allow a select number of new office towers to rise — on the condition that the real-estate developers who utilize the new zoning pay into a fund that would finance new public investment, such as less-congested passageways in Grand Central and more open space. By tying development to these improvements, this plan could generate in excess of $500 million at a time of continued budget challenges for both the city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

From the beginning, we have been clear that we expected the proposal to be refined throughout the public review process. And we kept that commitment, including recent changes that allow a more vibrant mix of uses in new buildings and will give landmarks in the district greater flexibility to sell their unused development rights.

Today, after more than a year of discussions with local groups and elected leaders, and in response to feedback from Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilman Dan Garodnick and community boards, we are announcing a new addition to the proposal: We will advance funding for some of the mass transit and open space improvements in East Midtown immediately upon passage of the rezoning. Previously, the plan had been to wait for developers to pay into the fund. By advancing a significant portion of the money, the public can experience the benefits of the plan — a transformed Grand Central with benefits throughout the Lexington subway line and improvements to streets and public spaces — far more quickly.

In the coming weeks, we will draw up a specific package of improvements that will be paid for upfront by the city, which will set the stage for development and be repaid when development occurs. Without the rezoning and the revenue it generates, these improvements may never get made.

We can’t allow that to happen. By modernizing zoning and using the anticipated revenue to begin early funding of public improvements, we can create immediate quality-of-life improvements while also strengthening the longterm health of our economy.

[chris08876]

Bloomberg has done so much to this cities economy and growth potential. I hope his predecessor thinks just like him.

[jd3189]

^^^ You mean his successor .

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by jd3189

^^^ You mean his successor .

Lol woops, ha...dam liquor Yea I'm rooting for Quinn on this one. I hear she thinks like him and she seems to be for a lot of the growth policies that he wants.

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/op...=opinion&_r=1&

Gotham’s Towering Ambitions

By KENNETH T. JACKSON
August 29, 2013

FOR much of the last century, New York City has been the financial, cultural, media, retailing and fashion capital of not just the country but the world. Yet the great Hudson River metropolis is in danger of losing that status because of a growing local attitude that favors the old over the new, stability over growth, the status quo over change and short buildings over tall ones.

That attitude can be seen most clearly in the groundswell of opposition to a proposal by the Department of City Planning to rezone 73 blocks on the East Side of Manhattan to allow for newer and bigger skyscrapers.

In 1965, this area was the most intensely developed square mile in the world, with twice as much floor space per acre than any other place on earth. But virtually nothing has been built there in the past half century. Not surprisingly, the buildings in the neighborhood, known as East Midtown, are now comparatively shabby, out of date and uncompetitive with the best office space in Tokyo, London and Hong Kong. Of the 100 tallest buildings in the world now under construction, only three are in New York and only one is in East Midtown.

Opposition to the rezoning is based on three arguments: that it is already overdeveloped, that subways and trains cannot support more riders, and that new development will threaten historically significant structures.

All of these points miss the unique nature of New York. First, high density is a good thing in neighborhoods with excellent public-transit options. It is the reason outsiders are attracted to Manhattan, the reason it is so vital, energetic and exciting.

.....New York is for those who want to be part of the tumble and the tide and who are comfortable with diversity and crowding on a daily basis. And recall that Manhattan was 47 percent denser in 1910 than it was in 2012 (2.3 million residents in 1910 and only 1.6 million a century later).

Second, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could handle more, not fewer, riders. Although ridership is up by about 60 percent since 1975, the number of patrons is still about 360 million per year fewer than in 1947 (2 billion riders then versus about 1.6 billion in 2012).

True, some lines that serve East Midtown, like the Lexington Avenue subway, are jammed every morning. But the Second Avenue line, though still under construction, will relieve some pressure on the area before any new buildings can be built as a result of rezoning.

Moreover, Grand Central Terminal, which is in the heart of East Midtown and handles a large portion of the city’s commuter traffic, could accommodate dozens more trains. For example, on a typical weekday at 3 p.m., its 67 tracks and 44 platforms send only 10 trains an hour to the suburbs. Tourists do stop and stare at the station’s world-famous 128-foot ceiling, but part of the attraction is the dense human symphony on the concourse.

Third, while the historic preservation achievements of the past half century have been remarkable, the local effort has moved well beyond its original purpose. Landmark designation now covers more than 31,000 properties across the city. Its goal seems to be to preserve anything that will maintain the streetscape, whether or not the individual structures have significance. Entire blocks are frozen on the logic that the first buildings ever put there are also the best that could ever be imagined there.

New York has long had its opponents of change. The Woolworth Building, one of the first modern skyscrapers, broke with tradition when it opened in 1913, starting a new race to the sky. But excessive height frightened some people, so in 1926, the Municipal Art Society and the City Club collaborated on a plan to restrict new buildings to 10 stories or fewer.

Had they succeeded, we would never have seen the Lever House or the Chrysler, Empire State or Seagram Buildings. Rockefeller Center obliterated its streetscape and required the demolition of hundreds of individual brownstones. Few cared. New York was going where no other city had ever been.

Is New York still the wonder city, the place that celebrates the future, the city that once defined modernism? Or should it follow the paths of Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston and Savannah in emphasizing its human scale, its gracious streets and its fine, historic houses?

The answer for a metropolis competing on a global scale must be no, because a vital city is a growing city, and a growing city is a changing city. When Henry James returned to New York in 1904 after a long absence in Europe, he discovered that the city of his youth had “vanished from the earth.” But in its place a powerful new metropolis was emerging, with a skyline unequaled at the time.

Kenneth T. Jackson is a professor of history at Columbia, the editor in chief of The Encyclopedia of New York City and president emeritus of the New-York Historical Society

[NYguy]

No surprise here, now its on to the Council for final approval, where there could be more changes.


http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2013...ing-commission

East Midtown Rezoning Plan Approved by City Planning Commission





By Alan Neuhauser
September 30, 2013

The proposal to overhaul East Midtown's aging business district to allow for new, larger skyscrapers moved one step closer to becoming reality Monday.

The City Planning Commission overwhelmingly approved the Bloomberg administration's application to rezone 73 blocks around Grand Central Terminal, voting 11-0 with one recusal and one abstention.

The measure that would allow buildings with greater density, higher ceilings and wider floors now heads to the City Council, which has until the end of November to vote on it.

"If we are to continue to have a world-class district with top-tier, state-of-the-art office space, we need to change the zoning — but carefully," Commission chairwoman Amanda Burden said. "This proposal...will allow East Midtown to usher in the next generation of state-of-the-art and competitive office space, and to ensure that the district maintains its vital role in support of the city’s economy."

http://untappedcities.com/2013/08/06...han-you-think/

NYC’s East Midtown Rezoning Plan: Why It’s Better than You Think





by julia vitullo-martin
August 13, 2013

Many of the sleek Modernist buildings in which the advertising “Mad Men” toiled decades ago are now shabby and tired, their once glamorous tenants dispersed to neighborhoods to the west and south. The advertising industry has been gone from Madison Avenue for so long—its exodus started in the early 1970s—that only people of a certain age automatically understood the play on words behind the title of the smash hit “Mad Men.”

Indeed, much of East Midtown is aging badly. Of its 400 buildings, some 300 are more than 50 years old. Even those with handsome limestone exteriors that look good from the outside tend to have overly small interior spaces, low ceilings, and out-of-date mechanicals. The now mostly dreary post-war Modernist buildings have the same problems—but without the handsome exteriors.

Yet Midtown is not only the largest commercial district in the country, it is New York City’s historic core. As urban economist John Alschuler, the New York-based chairman of HR&A Advisors, says, “No city is better than its primary location. You can’t let your core decline and expect that other neighborhoods will make up for it.”

If there’s one thing that nearly all of today’s urbanists agree it’s that transit-oriented-development is good: cities should encourage development at their transit hubs. Yet the Bloomberg administration’s proposal to do just that by giving extra density to developers in East Midtown has been met by explosive criticism by those who generally position themselves as TOD advocates. The New York Times, for example, assailed the rezoning for “adding a small army of new skyscrapers around the elegant Grand Central Station.”

That’s not actually what the rezoning would do—there would be no small army, just a handful of towers—but isn’t the very essence of Grand Central Terminal to be a transit hub? And shouldn’t we want far more development at that hub than New York had 100 years ago when it was built?

.....But what about the current urban fabric, the many likable, good-looking, but architecturally unrenowned pre-war buildings that now stand on so many blocks? Most will be untouched by the new zoning, though some of the large ones, including those long slated for redevelopment, will qualify. S. L. Green, for example, is planning a tower to be designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox at the corner of Vanderbilt and 42nd Street. Personally, I love the current building (though the commenters on Curbed call it mediocre and boring), but I recognize that no top corporate tenant—which is what GCT should be attracting—would dream of moving into such an obsolete building, however pretty. If any corner should be primed for TOD, it’s the one opposite Grand Central. And, under Bloomberg’s DIB, Green will pay a minimum of $32 million into the fund, and some $150 million should it decide to opt for maximum density.

[NYguy]

Future mayor Bill de Blasio's take on the rezoning...







Unlike what most people would expect, de Blasio suggests that enough sites within the rezoning area aren't being included.

[NYguy]

http://observer.com/2013/11/mayor-bl...last-rezoning/

Mayor Bloomberg, Real Estate Industry Denied One Last Rezoning


By Kim Velsey and Jill Colvin
11/12/13

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Planning Commission have presided over 123 rezonings, covering some 11,500 blocks since 2002. But despite his best efforts, ardent appeals and the real estate industry’s incredibly enthusiastic support, Mr. Bloomberg will not get his 124th.

The City Council has rejected the mayor’s late-breaking, potentially legacy-burnishing and incredibly ambitious plan to rezone the 73 blocks around Grand Central, a plan that would allow for the construction of modern, soaring skyscrapers in the heart of the city’s central business district.

Late this afternoon, officials announced that they had failed to reach a deal–despite fervent, last-minute efforts by the Bloomberg administration.

“Creating new jobs in East Midtown – and across all of New York City – is essential. We can and should do more with the commercial corridor around Grand Central … However, a good idea alone is not enough to justify action today,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and local Councilman Dan Garodnick said in a joint statement. “We should rezone East Midtown, but only when we can do so properly. After extensive negotiations, we have been unable to reach agreement on a number of issues in the proposed plan.”

Community members heralded the decision to table what they referred to as a rushed proposal—Lola Fineklstein, the chair of the multi board task force on Midtown East wrote in a statement that “This is how the public process is designed to work. The Council recognized what New Yorkers across the city felt: this proposal simply wasn’t good enough.”

The real estate industry was, unsurprisingly, displeased with the decision.

The New York Building Congress also released a statement saying that it was “extremely displeased that one of the most far-reaching rezoning proposals in the City’s history is not moving forward at this time.”

“For New York to remain a global capital, it needs to regenerate its office stock and remain attractive to a variety of national and international businesses. The area surrounding Grand Central is one of the most highly accessible districts in the world and a perfect location for new Class A office space.”

However, Mr. Garodnick emphasized that he and the Council were not opposed to a rezoning; they simply wanted to a better, more well thought out plan. Among the changes Mr. Garodnick said he would like to see were “a more robust infrastructure and public realm program,” changing the fixed air rights pricing to pricing that “addresses differences in geography or time” as well as further study of “the proper level of density of Midtown East as compared to other commercial districts in the city.”

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who quickly praised the Council’s decision in a statement, vowed to present a revised plan for the area by the end of next year.

“For the sake of New York City’s long-term economic vitality, Midtown East should be re-zoned to allow the creation of a world-class 21st-century commercial district. But it needs to be done right,” he said not long after the decision was announced publicly, pointing to the same concerns about infrastructure and development rights.

“I applaud the City Council for pressing the pause button in order to ensure these concerns are adequately addressed,” he said, vowing to formulate his own vision for the city after he takes office on January 1st. ”We must continue this process in earnest upon taking office, and I commit to presenting a revised rezoning plan for the area by the end of 2014.”

http://politicker.com/2013/11/city-c...sios-blessing/

Mr. Bloomberg reacted to the news with surprising optimism–but nonetheless noted the move would cost the area hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure improvements and $1 billion in lost tax revenue.

"Due to a lack of City Council support, we are withdrawing the application for the rezoning of East Midtown. This will unfortunately cost the area hundreds of millions of dollars in badly needed subway and street improvements and $1 billion in additional tax revenue – as well as tens of thousands of new jobs that would have been created. Throughout the lengthy and extensive public review process – which unfolded over the course of two years – we have worked with community leaders and elected officials to develop a modest proposal that would allow for a handful of sites to be redeveloped into modern office space, with developers paying into a fund that would support upgrades to the transportation network and open space in the area. We also worked closely with religious institutions in the area, and the proposal earned their support, providing them with a new funding source to maintain their iconic landmarked buildings.

We have a financing agreement in place to pre-fund $100 million in mass transit and public space improvements before any new development could begin, but that funding was predicated on future development, which now will not occur. The inability to reach a consensus on the plan’s details is regrettable, but it was encouraging that nearly everyone involved in the process recognized the need for the area to be rezoned to ensure that it remains competitive with other business districts around the world, and we appreciate the time that Speaker Quinn, Council Member Garodnick, and Council staff put into this issue. We are glad to at least be leaving the next administration a blueprint for future action.”

[Visiteur]

I'll share a quote I just saw on the Curbed NY version of the article regarding the rezoning denial:

"I bet the guys over at Skyscraperpage and Skyscrapercity are freaking out right now."

You guys are famous! Start selling those glamour shots!

[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/05/...ge-next-month/

Midtown East rezoning plans to reemerge next month
Alicia Glen: But "it’s going to be between a year or two before you see anything happen"






http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...sfp=3160509449

Mayor to unveil midtown east rezoning timeline


Andrew J. Hawkins
May 21, 2014

The plan for a massive rezoning of midtown east, which stalled in the waning weeks of the Bloomberg administration, will get a new lease on life next month. That is when Mayor Bill de Blasio will release his timeline for reinvigorating the effort, according to Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for economic development and housing. In fact, speaking at a breakfast forum hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission on Wednesday, she revealed that the administration would release its timeline in about two weeks.

The project as initially proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg aimed to rezone a more-than-70-block swath of midtown east to spur the construction of a new generation of bigger, state-of-the-art skyscrapers. By the sale of air rights that would allow developers to do just that, the city could, in turn, raise hundreds of millions of dollars for transit improvements in the area.

It's unclear how the de Blasio administration's plan will differ from his predecessor's proposal. The City Council and some preservationists and transportation advocates objected to that earlier plan. Among other things they said that the plan underpriced the air rights to be sold.

Ms. Glen said the administration would release its timeline in the "next week or two," but in a scrum with reporters after the event, she said the zoning would not take effect until 2016 at the earliest.

"That would mean we would obviously have the time to do all the work around consensus building on exactly how we should approach it, then get it certified," she said. "In real life, it's going to be between a year or two before you see anything happen."

She added, "It's not the number one thing we're working on right now, but we're going announce a process which will then give you a timeframe in which it will actually happen."

Asked how Mr. de Blasio's approach to the rezoning will differ from Mr. Bloomberg's, Ms. Glen said, "We want to make sure we do it in a way makes clear the infrastructure can be paid for in the sequence of events when you actually need the infrastructure to come online."

The subway would need to be able to service the projected growth in the number of commercial and residential tenants that would arrive as a result of the rezoning, she said. And paying for those upgrades in a way that "doesn't put additional burden on the city" needs to be planned out.

She declined to comment on the notion put forward by critics of the Bloomberg plan that air rights were being undervalued, but suggested that the city would seek to raise enough money in time to pay for upgrades to the area as quickly as possible.

"We want to look at a way where we can raise enough capital up front," Ms. Glen said. "It takes a long time to do those infrastructure improvements, so you really need to identify a source of financing up front."

When Mr. Bloomberg's plan died, SL Green Realty's plan to build a 65-story, 1.3 million-square-foot-office tower One Vanderbilt adjacent to Grand Central Station also ended. Asked if she saw One Vanderbilt as part of the overall rezoning, Ms. Glen said she has had "a lot of discussions" with Councilman Dan Garodnick, who represents the area, about the project.

"It's an incredibly exciting project," she said. "And it's a project that they've already identified a very high quality tenant that we would like to see come to New York."

Asked if that building could go forward independently of the Midtown east rezoning plan, Ms. Glen said, "I couldn't possibly comment."

On another matter she noted that the plan would not include much in the way of housing. "That is not a place where we're going to be concentrating our housing efforts."

With regard to housing, however, Ms. Glen revealed that the City Planning Commission would release by August or September an analysis of which neighborhoods the administration will concentrate its rezoning efforts on to support Mr. de Blasio's plan to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. That process will include a plan to mandate the inclusion of below-market rate units in any development benefiting from a rezoning, also called mandatory inclusionary zoning.

That report will likely call for 12 to 15 neighborhoods to be rezoned, among them in East New York, a neighborhood Ms. Glen said is "very underbuilt."

During the forum, Ms. Glen also said the city would commit $350 million in its five-year capital plan for infrastructure improvements in Hunter's Point South in Long Island City, Stapleton in Staten Island, and Coney Island—three neighborhoods she said have "amazing housing potential."

[mrnyc]

eh, a delay to make it better or more likely to put the new administrations stamp on it. they'll pass something similar soon enough.

[NYguy]

Quotes from the city's press release:


http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/about/pr053014.shtml


DE BLASIO ADMINISTRATION AND COUNCIL MEMBER GARODNICK ANNOUNCE TWO-TRACK PLANNING STRATEGY FOR EAST MIDTOWN TO FOSTER GROWTH, CREATE JOBS, AND DRIVE CRITICAL UP-FRONT INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS


May 30, 2014
Rachaele Raynoff

Mayor Bill de Blasio, Council Member Dan Garodnick and Borough President Gale Brewer today announced a multi-part strategy to strengthen East Midtown as a world-class 21st Century commercial district. The framework announced today represents a new consensus that will help ensure East Midtown’s future vitality as a business district, attract more quality jobs to New York City, and deliver vital infrastructure improvements in the same timeframe as new development.

The area around Grand Central Terminal is a major economic engine for New York City, but it faces a shortage of modern office space and challenges to its overstrained infrastructure. To foster investment in the district’s future, the Department of City Planning (DCP) is proceeding with a two-track process that will deliver in both the short- and long-term.

First, the department will advance a zoning proposal to allow for larger state-of-the-art buildings along Vanderbilt Avenue that would provide specific, significant and upfront public infrastructure upgrades. The initiative is designed to ensure that property owners provide for much-needed improvements at Grand Central Terminal to relieve subway station bottlenecks and create new public open space sought by local stakeholders. The changes will undergo a full public review.

.....Separately, Council Member Garodnick, Borough President Gale Brewer, and Chairman Weisbrod will begin a ground-up planning process for Greater East Midtown. This process will actively engage a broad range of stakeholders to collectively identify long-term needs and goals for the neighborhood. The process will result in a comprehensive framework by next spring to foster economic growth and vitality within the study area.

Embracing the need to reinvigorate East Midtown and improve the neighborhood’s public spaces and transit infrastructure connections, the process is expected to tackle a host of complex issues that will provide a basis for future zoning, infrastructure and policy initiatives. Its task force will be co-chaired by Garodnick and Brewer, and will work closely with the Department of City Planning and other public agencies. Its membership will also include members of local community boards, as well as representatives from local business groups and other stakeholders.

.....“We are going to keep New York City competitive, and do it through strategic investments and ground-up planning. These are the kind of policies that won’t just pay off today, but will lay the groundwork to keep districts like East Midtown thriving and attracting new business for decades to come,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“This is about investing in New York City’s future. East Midtown is home to 200,000 jobs and features unparalleled transit access, including multiple subway and regional commuter rail lines. This is an asset we must maintain and improve to make sure that it functions efficiently and continues to attract employers who will create good jobs for New Yorkers,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates that we are working diligently to fulfill the Mayor’s commitment to strengthen East Midtown as a world-class 21st Century commercial district consistent with community and city-wide needs,” said City Planning Chairman Carl Weisbrod. “Equally important, it also exemplifies our approach to ground-up community planning that coordinates new development with appropriate infrastructure and city services. We believe the result will truly be a Greater East Midtown.”

.....The proposal for this five-block area recognizes that there are development sites along Vanderbilt Avenue that can provide new modern commercial space, while also enhancing the area’s public open space and subway infrastructure. These two objectives have broad support and will help to maintain and strengthen the business district.

The Department of City Planning (DCP) is proposing a new zoning special permit for sites along Vanderbilt, to create a public review process for larger modern buildings with a maximum density of 30 FAR, while requiring the property owners to make major improvements to the transit network as well as create new public spaces in the area. The new special permit, called the Grand Central Public Realm Improvement Bonus, would mandate that public improvements be delivered as part of the construction of each new building.

This initiative will help spur private commercial investment and improve pedestrian circulation at and around the Grand Central subway station, which is one of the busiest in the entire subway system with nearly a half million daily users. In order to qualify for the maximum allowable floor area, benefited property owners will be required to undertake improvements to the Grand Central subway station that help alleviate platform overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue line (4, 5, and 6), allowing trains to depart on schedule and eliminating system wide back-ups, as well as other enhancements above and below grade.

Both the City’s proposal for a new special permit and any buildings seeking the new special permit will undergo full public review as part of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).

[ziet911]

It'll be interesting how all of this develops and how the proposals evolve for redevelopment......
I hope it serves the needs of the majority of the citizens and not just a few

[mhays]

I don't get the restrictions on hotels in the earlier de Blasio memo.

Offices have three rush hours per day, but hotel activity is spread fairly evenly through the day and evening. Hotel guests allow restaurants to also spread their business across more hours. At night they give life to an otherwise quiet office district. Office tenants generally like being near a variety of hotels, and they like having more restaurants and shops nearby (in the hotels as well as supported by hotel guests).

If the intent is to artificially reduce competition for buildable sites, I get that. But not that hotels have a negative impact.

[sparkling]

Up in the Air: Development Rights of New York City Landmarks

JOSH BARBANEL
April 5, 2015

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is looking skyward in a renewed drive to become a player in Manhattan’s real-estate market.

Under current city rules, the church can sell rights to build vertically on its site on Fifth Avenue to developers who want to go higher on their lots—but only to developers on or across the street.

The Archdiocese of New York has been working with Central Synagogue and St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church for new rules that would allow the two churches and the synagogue—all designated city landmarks—to sell their unused air rights to developers who have properties that aren’t adjacent and may be many blocks away.

“As much flexibility as possible is needed to give these stranded landmarks the opportunity to sell some of their development rights,” David Brown, the archdiocese’s director of real estate, said a few weeks ago at a conference on air rights organized by the Department of City Planning and the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute of Baruch College.

Sitting on a square block of prime land, St. Patrick’s has about 1.17 million square feet of development rights available, according to an analysis of city data. That is enough space to erect a structure about the size of the Chrysler Building on top of the cathedral.

The archdiocese estimates it has about 1 million square feet of air rights. Even allowing for the differing estimates, those rights could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

At the conference, city Planning Director Carl Weisbrod announced the beginning of a broad review of air rights.

“The expectation is we will probably do something,” he said.

The city created a limited program to transfer air rights from designated landmarks in 1968. At the time, it was facing a legal challenge from Penn Central Transportation Co. over the decision to grant landmark status to Grand Central Terminal.

The program’s rules require a formal city review process, however, and not many deals were done. Ten projects eventually were built with landmark air rights, including three since 1990, the latest in 2009.

A city report found that many landmarks had no available sites to transfer their rights to, while developers were put off by the formal city review, which includes extensive public review and City Council approval.

Meanwhile, hundreds of other development-rights transfers not involving landmark air rights, took place—most under far less stringent rules. The Furman Center at New York University found 361 transfers from 2003 to 2011. Two went through the landmark program

The two churches and the synagogue, along with another large landmark, Lever House, the 1952 International Style skyscraper on Park Avenue, came close to winning new air-rights rules in the final months of the Bloomberg administration. The change was included in a proposed 2013 rezoning plan for Midtown East that was dropped in the face of opposition.

The archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, raised the issue several times with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and discussed the issue with Mayor Bill de Blasio in their first meeting in the cardinal’s residence next to St. Patrick’s soon after Mr. de Blasio was sworn, in a church spokesman said.

Now, landmark air rights is back in play. A task force headed by Gail Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, and Councilman Daniel Garodnick, whose district include parts of Midtown, was set up last year to consider a new Midtown East zoning plan. It also is discussing a broader landmark transfer plan.

“They have everything from leaky roofs to other building problems,” Ms. Brewer said. “We care about those institutions.”

Preservationists support the idea of giving owners of nonprofit landmark buildings a revenue stream to help pay for maintenance At the same time, they worry the program can lead to unchecked development and the demolition of worthy older buildings if it isn’t well designed.

At the conference, Mr. Weisbrod warned the plans could lead to fears of “a giant mushroom cloud of untethered air rights floating over the entire city” unless they were carefully considered.

St. Patrick’s which laid its cornerstone in 1858, and is now undergoing a $170 million restoration, would be by far the biggest potential beneficiary of a rule change for landmarks in East Midtown.

Robert Von Ancken, the chairman of Landauer Valuation and Advisory, said the value of the cathedral’s air rights depended on the size and location of the district where the rights could be transferred, the rules governing the transfer and competition from other city programs that also allow buildings to grow larger.

“There is no way to know what the air rights might one day be worth,” said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese. “Right now they are worth zero.”

In 2013, the city valued air rights for commercial development in Midtown at $250 a square foot. An appraisal by Mr. Van Ancken for the city in 2013 put residential rights at $360 a square foot. But since then, land prices have risen by a third.

[C.]

This is so frustrating!!

Just allow any landmarked/historic building to transfer any or all of their development rights anywhere in the city. They will be bought up by developers for places along 57 street and other development hot beds throughout the city. A portion of the funds received by the owner of the historic building would provide for much needed monies for renovation and maintenance, and we'll greatly reduce the risk of demolition of historic buildings for the purposes of redevelopment.

How many more historic buildings will go before the change is made??

[phoenixboi08]

Originally Posted by CIA

This is so frustrating!!

Just allow any landmarked/historic building to transfer any or all of their development rights anywhere in the city. They will be bought up by developers for places along 57 street and other development hot beds throughout the city. A portion of the funds received by the owner of the historic building would provide for much needed monies for renovation and maintenance, and we'll greatly reduce the risk of demolition of historic buildings for the purposes of redevelopment.

How many more historic buildings will go before the change is made??

I gather that the fear from the owners of those landmarks is that the value of their air rights will be diminished if that happens.

[sparkling]

Carl Weisbrod on Revitalizing Midtown East and Making NYC Affordable

DANIELLE SCHLANGER
4/08/2015

A year-and-a-half ago, City Planning Commission Chairman Carl Weisbrod was a partner at the real estate consulting firm HR&A Advisors, enjoying a comfortable life in the private sector after spending years in and out of government.

“I was very happy … I was planning to do that forever,” said Mr. Weisbrod, now 70.

Then, in early 2014, the newly sworn-in mayor, Bill de Blasio, asked Mr. Weisbrod, who had just co-chaired his transition team, to return to the public sector and become the chairman of the planning commission. Mr. Weisbrod was “not at all” considering returning to city government, but said Mr. de Blasio was “extremely persuasive” in his argument, making his request all but impossible to turn down.

“He just … came back repeatedly and asked me to do it repeatedly and repeatedly. And my wife added the coup de grâce and said, ‘You have to do this!’ ” said Mr. Weisbrod. “So I did it.”

That’s how Mr. Weisbrod found himself as a key player in the de Blasio administration and at the helm of the City Planning Commission, spearheading some of the mayor’s most prominent initiatives, including the rezoning of East Midtown and the plan for securing affordable housing. Many of Mr. de Blasio’s skeptics who had expressed concern about the mayor’s lack of executive experience lauded his decision to tap Mr. Weisbrod, a veteran of city government who held various positions during the Lindsay, Koch, Dinkins and Bloomberg administrations. Mr. Weisbrod also spent considerable time in the private sector, having been the president of the real estate division of Trinity Church, one of the city’s largest commercial property owners.

“Carl sees past the day-to-day, and takes the long view of neighborhoods with an eye towards promoting the diversity that is our city’s hallmark,” said Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen. “He can see what a zoning change will mean not just for tomorrow, but 20 years from now.”

Steven Spinola, the outgoing president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said that when Mr. Weisbrod was considering whether to take the job with the administration, he told Mr. Weisbrod that he couldn’t think of anyone who has been better groomed to be the chairman of the City Planning Commission.

“Everything that [Carl] has done has had some element of planning, and because he comes out of the private sector as well, he’s got an understanding of what it takes to go through the process from the outside,” said Mr. Spinola, who has known Mr. Weisbrod since their days in the Koch administration some 35 years ago. “Everyone in my industry has a great deal of confidence in dealing with Carl and his entire department.”

Last week, Mr. Weisbrod enjoyed what is likely his largest victory at his current post to date when the City Planning Commission approved 1 Vanderbilt, SL Green Realty’s $1 billion, 67-story tower that is proposed to sit adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The Class A property would be the first skyscraper in the East Midtown area in at least a decade. Mr. Weisbrod said looking at East Midtown and assessing how it could maintain its viability as the city’s premiere central business district was high on the mayor’s priority list.

“The mayor said to me, ‘The first thing that I really want you to do is let’s get East Midtown going again,’” said Mr. Weisbrod. “East Midtown is one of the key engines, if not the number one engine, that drives our city’s economy. And it is really outmoded in some ways.”

Mr. Spinola said that this success demonstrates that the administration and Mr. Weisbrod prioritized East Midtown.

“Even though it didn’t happen in the Bloomberg administration, [the de Blasio administration was] prepared to immediately begin working on it and that’s exactly what they did,” said Mr. Spinola. “They moved ahead in a terrific time frame to provide the kind of zoning changes that’s going to bring new office space to Midtown Manhattan.”

Mr. Weisbrod said he is optimistic that the rezoning of the Vanderbilt Corridor and greater East Midtown will come to fruition and that 1 Vanderbilt is a great example of the private sector paying for public infrastructure and amenities.

“These improvements will not only improve the experience for Metro North riders and subway riders who utilize Grand Central Station specifically or ultimately East Side Access riders, but also it is going to be a tremendous boon to Downtown,” said Mr. Weisbrod, citing the commuting struggles of those having trouble transferring at the station.

But what Messrs. Weisbrod and de Blasio are hoping will be this administration’s lasting legacy is making headway on securing more affordable housing, a crisis which the mayor has unabashedly declared to be his priority while in office in the spirit of ending “the tale of two cities.”

There is little debate that New York residents are being financially squeezed by the dearth of affordable housing. In his 2015 State of the City address, Mr. de Blasio cited statistics saying that “In 2014, 56 percent of rental households in New York were spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing—up 10 points in a little more than a decade.” In May, the city released its $41 billion “Housing New York” plan outlining its strategy for tackling the issue, which the mayor declared as “literally the largest and most ambitious affordable housing program initiated by any city in this country in the history of the United States of America.”

“We are very, very focused on the housing agenda … this is the issue of our time,” said Mr. Weisbrod.

Commissioner Vicki Been of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development told Commercial Observer that Mr. Weisbrod’s insight and expertise were integral in shaping the affordable housing plan.

“Affordable housing is a catalyst for jobs, retail, parks, schools, streetscapes—all the features that make a neighborhood thrive,” said Ms. Been. “Our relationship with City Planning is essential to ensure that we are looking at neighborhoods and community development in a holistic way, and I cannot imagine a better partner than Carl.”

Though this administration has invested enormous amounts of time and resources into affordable housing, many in the greater real estate community have emphasized that there is no quick fix to this quandary.

“There is a lot of work to do on affordable housing. Some of it isn’t in the city’s control. Land is really expensive and it’s hard for affordable housing to compete,” said Lisa Gomez, the chief executive officer of L+M Development Partners and the chair of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing. “Construction is booming, which makes everything more expensive. Land use is an important piece but capital resources are another important aspect.”

One strategy deployed by the administration has been identifying neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs where affordable housing can feasibly take root. Rezoning is coming to East New York, Long Island City, Flushing West, East Harlem, the Bay Street Landing Corridor and Jerome Avenue to make room for more units.

“We are focused on them to help those neighborhoods grow, but also make sure that they grow in a responsible way and in a way that limits, if not eliminates, the need for the displacement for people that are living there now,” said Mr. Weisbrod.

Mr. Weisbrod says the mayor is committed not just to residents’ affordable housing needs, but to overall growth and development. And despite reluctance at the start of his term, many in the real estate community have begun to see the mayor as a partner. Mr. Weisbrod emphasized he does not see this change of heart as a result of his appointment.

“The mayor has made it very, very clear that he is pro-development. He wants to see the city grow,” said Mr. Weisbrod.

The chairman also cited the reality of the industry being intimately tied to the well-being of the city.

“[This is the] only industry that can’t pick up stakes and leave. Virtually any other industry, at least in theory, can leave New York if it wants to,” said Mr. Weisbrod. “There are very few industries where the self-interest of the industry and the fundamental interests of the citizens of the city are so deeply intertwined as the real estate industry.”


City Planning Commission Chairman Carl Weisbrod (photo: Arman Dzidzovic for Commercial Observer).

[Vertical_Gotham]

East Midtown Rezoning Plan Moves Forward
http://www.wnyc.org/story/east-midto...moves-forward/

June 30, 2015

Manhattan's East Midtown area is one step closer to allowing for denser buildings. The East Midtown steering committee, set up to consider how to boost development in what was once a marquee commercial district, held its final meeting Tuesday.

The group has recomdended a proposal to city planners that would free up landmarked properties to sell the space above their properties, or unused air rights, anywhere within the East Midtown zoning district.

The cost of the development rights would be negotiated by the buyer and seller.

"Landmarks like St. Patrick's Cathedral, or St. Barts or Central Synagogue, or even Grand Central itself will be able to sell their air rights throughout the entire district," said city councilman Dan Garodnick, who co-chaired the steering committee.

Such sales are limited now to adjacent properties.

The city would then take a percentage of each sale of development rights and put those funds toward public improvements in the district.

An earlier failed proposal to rezone East Midtown put forth by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration would have allowed the city to charge $250 per square foot for air rights, that developers could purchase if they had a qualified site within the district.

"We've been working on a plan for East Midtown for over a year, and we’ve arrived at a framework that balances and addresses this neighborhood’s needs, including securing its landmarks, improving the transit system, building new high-quality office space, and creating open space," said Gale Brewer, Manhattan borough president, the steering committee co-chair.

But the city would have priced the development rights at the same amount, even though they'd likely be worth more, for example, at 57th Street and Park Avenue, than they would at 39th and Third Avenue.

The new proposal would also allow developers to make transit upgrades in exchange for receiving a building height and density bonus.

City planners will consider the proposal and enter it into the city's formal land use review process.

Last month, the New York City Council approved plans for a 63-story office tower in East Midtown, at One Vanderbilt.

[C.]

^ About effing time.