The former Citicorp Center (aka Citigroup Center) at 601 Lexington Avenue as seen in December 2015. Photo by Evan Bindelglass.

Landmarks Calendars Seven Midtown East Buildings for Designation

8:00 am on May 11, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass

New York City is full of amazing stories of transformation. Many neighborhoods are dramatically different from the way they were 100 years ago. That’s certainly true of Midtown East, the area around Grand Central Terminal, and it is on the cusp of a new era of transformation. Various city agencies are managing that transformation, which included a rezoning plan abandoned in 2013. It also includes preservation. That’s where the Landmarks Preservation Commission comes into play.

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Major Streetscape Improvements Proposed for Long Island City

7:00 am on May 11, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

The ongoing transformation of Long Island City is astounding. In the decade between 2006 and 2015, more than 8,600 housing units have been completed in the area, with well over 22,000 more on the way. Between 2012 and 2015, prices for prime development sites have jumped by 269 percent. As the neighborhood rapidly transitions from commercial/industrial to high-density residential, the local street grid, characterized by odd angles, must undergo a significant transformation. The city government began to address this need in 2010, when Jackson Avenue, the area’s principal thoroughfare, was upgraded with a green median, while a small triangular park was created at the intersection of 27th Street, Hunter Street, and 43rd Avenue.

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25 Kent Avenue

City Planning Commission Expected to Approve Eight-Story Office Building Planned at 25 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg

6:00 am on May 11, 2016 By Reid Wilson

In early January, the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) kicked off for Heritage Equity Partners’ planned eight-story, 400,000-square-foot office/manufacturing building at 25 Kent Avenue, in northern Williamsburg. Now, the City Planning Commission is expected to support rezoning the block for the project, Crain’s reports. But the approval comes at the expense of the proposed neighborhood rezoning, which would establish an “Enhanced Business District” over most of the North Williamsburg Industrial Business Zone (IBZ), allowing for the surrounding blocks to be developed similar to 25 Kent Avenue. The rezoning would grant developers a boost in allowed commercial FAR in exchange for the inclusion of light manufacturing space, identical to a normal community facility FAR bonus. City Planning is expected to approve the application later this month, at which point the City Council will vote on the project. Mayor Bill de Blasio will complete the ULURP review if he decides to sign off on City Council’s pending approval. Rubenstein Partners is partnered in the project, and Gensler and Hollwich Kushner Architecture (a.k.a HWKN) is designing.