Construction is nearing completion on Mabel, a seven-story residential building at 335 Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, Manhattan. Designed by COOKFOX and developed by MAG Partners and Mutual Redevelopment Houses, Inc., the 200,000-square-foot structure will yield 188 rental units in studio to two-bedroom layouts. The project will also include a 23,000-square-foot Lidl supermarket and additional ground-floor retail space. Thirty percent of the homes will be reserved for affordable housing. The development is located at the corner of Eighth Avenue and West 26th Street within the Penn South affordable housing cooperative, officially known as Mutual Redevelopment Houses.
Exterior work on the upper levels has concluded since YIMBY’s last on-site update in January, when scaffolding still covered portions of the roof and seventh-story setbacks. This has since been removed and landscaping is now visible on the roof deck. The sidewalk shed remains standing around the property as work finishes up on the ground floor.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Promotional signage has also been added to columns of the brick exterior.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
The main entrance to Mabel features a dark metal canopy bearing the name and address of the property. A screen of wooden louvers adjacent to the doors complements the vertical bond pattern of the surrounding brickwork.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
The below rendering previews the entrance canopy topped with low greenery.
Rendering of Mabel. Courtesy of DBOX
The rest of the ground-floor frontage will likely finish work in the coming months.
Mabel. Photo by Michael Young.
Ninety percent of the units at Mabel will come in studio and one-bedroom layouts, with two-bedrooms rounding out the remaining inventory. Amenities will include a fitness center, library, media lounge, a coworking lounge with private workspaces, a dining area with a catering kitchen, and outdoor rooftop gardens with dining areas and a grilling terrace.
Rendering of Mabel. Courtesy of DBOX
Rendering of Mabel. Courtesy of DBOX
Rendering of Mabel. Courtesy of DBOX
Rendering of Mabel. Courtesy of DBOX
The Lidl supermarket will feature a bakery, produce, a floral shop, meat and seafood, and other typical everyday essentials. The Germany-based company is also expected to partner with Hire NYC to offer employment to local residents with comprehensive benefits such as healthcare for all full- and part-time employees, regardless of hours worked per week.
JLL Capital Markets arranged a $151.4 million capitalization for the project with financing secured from Bank OZK and MetLife Investment Management.
The property is a short walk from the C and E trains at the 23rd Street station to the south.
Mabel’s anticipated completion date is slated for the third quarter of 2025, and is on track to receive Passive House and LEED Gold certifications.
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In a vacuum this is a great looking project, but when taking its site into consideration is an absurdly underscaled missed opportunity.
As has been mentioned as nauseum, we should have seen a minimum of 20 stories here.
I really can’t believe how short this is considering.
Looks like an abandoned industrial building repurposed into apartments.
Why must today’s brickwork always have hideous seams?
And why such a short building here? Is this a perverse zoning issue?
Pesky expansion/contraction.
I understand why it has to be done when exterior brick is not structural anymore but I can’t stand how lazy and shoddy some of these expansion joints appear. Some of them just look like balls, with little apparant effort to make them disappear.
why the hell is this so short lmao
Only Part of the roof is shown which looks beautiful in the rendering but the real roof doesn’t look so good and most of the roof is full of mechanical units almost covering the whole roof which is quite unattractive especially to neighbors looking down on the building. There are many black tall poles spread out all around the roof eccentricity the garden area which aren’t shown in the rendering.
Regarding height what most don’t know the land was leased to the developer by the housing complex surrounding it. There were restrictions for height, etc. The complex owns the property surrounding it from 23rd to 28th streets and 8th and 9th Avenues
Penn South and their hideous towers in the park bargains – pay barely any taxes compared to the rest of us – to preserve their precious “affordability” that no one else can have since the list has been closed for decades. And they didnt want anyone blocking their views – even though Penn South are taller and the prewar loft across the street is at least 20 stories.
The hypocrisy of the mooching class knows no bounds
Only in New York Kids ! Only in New York
Hey it’s Chollo Nick!
Agree with all the comments about the building height. This is NYC, where tall buildings were born. The city is looking to close the Elizabeth St Park in Nolita to build affordable housing(there is so little green space in Nolita, and the park is always packed), yet this building gets built and could easily be taller. I have to believe there could have been negotiation with the property owner to increase the height.
Agree with everyone, it should be at least twice as tall. We desperately need more housing. Seems like a missed opportunity.