NEW YORK | 801 11th Ave | 565 FT & 525 FT | 42 & 38 FLOORS

[NYguy]

Brewer should be retired already. How long is the city going to continue to allow her particular brand of nonsense to interfere with needed development?



https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2026/05/28/development-deals-hit-new-york-council-roadblock/

Development deals hit Council roadblock


By Caroline Spivack
May 28, 2026

An air rights transfer of 148,000 square feet from the Hudson River Park Trust would clear the way for The Chapman Group and Friedland Properties to build a pair of beefed-up towers on Manhattan’s West Side known as Dewey Clinton Park North, with 1,064 apartments — 273 of them permanently income-restricted.

But the proposal is running into familiar friction over affordability levels and scale. The taller of the two buildings at 629 West 54th Street would rise to 44 stories with 617 units and 113,000 square feet of commercial space for a car dealership. The other tower sited for 801 11th Avenue would stand at 38 stories with 477 units and 85,000 square feet of commercial space, also earmarked for a car dealership.

The project hasn’t faced the kind of drawn-out battle seen at Monitor Point, but it has exposed a split in local support. Manhattan Community Board 4 ultimately voted against the plan even after its land use committee backed the project. On the other side of the process, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and the City Planning Commission approved the rezoning and air rights transfer.

The proposal is now before the City Council, where local Council member Gale Brewer is signaling continued scrutiny. “I will say that this is unusual,” Brewer said at a Wednesday committee hearing on the air rights transfer.

The Hudson Park River Trust has only ever sold its air rights to developers three times — for the St. John’s Terminal Project and in separate deals for mixed-use towers by Douglaston Development and Lalezarian Properties. In this case, the $29.7 million sale of air rights would help fund the rehabilitation of Pier 76, a five-and-a-half-acre pier supported by roughly 6,500 deteriorating wooden piles, according to Noreen Doyle, president and CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust.

The Trust plans to finalize the transaction once the project clears city approvals. Brewer called the park funding component a clear benefit, but said concerns persist over what developers plan to do with the added floor area. “We are concerned about how it goes higher, we are concerned about the number of affordable units — we want more,” she said.