NEW YORK | South Midtown Rezoning

[NYguy]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/n...g-housing.html

New York Plans to Open Parts of Midtown Manhattan to Housing
Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to rezone manufacturing areas south of Times Square and allow more office buildings to be converted to housing.


By Mihir Zaveri
Aug. 17, 2023

New York City officials announced plans on Thursday to ease the conversion of office buildings to housing and open manufacturing areas south of Times Square to new residential development, as part of a broader push to reinvent the struggling business district in Midtown Manhattan and address the city’s housing crisis.

The plans, outlined by Mayor Eric Adams at a news conference in a vacant office building, would allow for more housing to be built by rezoning manufacturing areas between 23rd Street and 40th Street from Fifth Avenue to Eighth Avenue.

A separate plan could allow for 20,000 new homes in former office spaces around the city, the city estimates.

Both plans would require City Council approval, which is expected to happen some time next year.

Together, the plans address two of New York City’s most urgent problems: dealing with a housing crisis and rebuilding its economic power after the pandemic pushed a growing number of residents toward working from home.

“The world has changed,” Mr. Adams said. “We have to be willing to change with it.”

Office conversions seem intuitive: Many office buildings are losing tenants, even as demand for a limited supply of housing has sent rents skyrocketing. But conversions have not taken place in meaningful numbers in the city. One problem is a morass of regulations and restrictions over what kinds of buildings can be converted, while another problem is the cost.

The plans announced by the mayor on Thursday address the former problem by allowing buildings that were built as recently as 1990 to convert to housing; currently, only buildings built before 1977 or 1961 are eligible, depending on the area. The city would also allow buildings to convert to housing anywhere in the city if the zoning regulations allow for residential.

But they do not address the funding issue, and it is not clear how many building owners or developers will be eager to move forward without financial incentives in the form of tax breaks or subsidies.

The rezoning of Midtown may also prove contentious among some city residents, even though the plan has the support of two local Council members, Erik Bottcher and Keith Powers, who appeared alongside the mayor on Thursday.

Currently, no new housing is allowed in the target area, city officials said.