Three of the city’s top officials in transportation, housing, and economic development laid out the details of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial plan to build a streetcar line along the waterfront from Sunset Park, Brooklyn to Astoria, Queens during a meeting with reporters on Friday.
The Durst Organization has just stopped construction on its sprawling megaproject on Hallets Point in Astoria, saying the taxes are “crushing” without the 421-a tax exemption. But developers are still rushing to build along the waterfront in the western Queens neighborhood. Developer Wayne Fried has filed applications for a seven-story, mixed-use building at 30-07 Vernon Boulevard, right next to Hallets Point and the East River.
In May of 2015, YIMBY reported that the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved RFR Realty’s planned commercial restoration of the landmarked Germania Bank Building, a six-story, 36,000-square-foot building at 190 Bowery, in NoLIta. Bowery Boogie now reports the restoration is well underway and crews have replaced the property’s windows. A new entrance is also being installed on the ground level and other alterations are now taking place. The building will eventually have a ground-floor retail space and the upper five floors will be leased as office space. Higgins Quasebarth & Partners and MdeAS Architects are behind the restoration design. Completion can probably be expected later this year.
YIMBY last reported on 10 Hudson Yards – the 52-story, 1.8-million square-foot office tower at the corner of Tenth Avenue and West 30th Street – last November when the structure officially topped out. Now, new photos taken by Tectonic show that glass installation is nearing completion and close to reaching the structure’s 895-foot-tall pinnacle. Earlier this month, office space in the building was roughly 100 percent leased, as Real Estate Weekly reported. Coach Inc. will occupy floors nine through 23 and part of 24, VaynerMedia will take the rest of floors 24 and 25, Intersection and Sidewalk Labs will take floor 26 and part of floor 27, L’Oréal USA will occupy the rest of 27 and floors 28 through 36, the Boston Consulting Group is leasing floors 42 through 47, and finally SAP is taking floors 48 through 52. Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group are the developers and Kohn Pedersen Fox is the design architect. Occupancy is expected in the spring.
Property owner Zhi Lin has filed applications for a six-story, nine-unit mixed-use building at 1471 Amsterdam Avenue, in Harlem’s Manhattanville section, on the block between West 131st and 133rd streets. The new building will rise on a 25-foot-wide lot and measure a total 8,854 square feet. The ground floor will have a 1,280-square-foot commercial establishment and the residential units stacked above will average a rental-sized 616 square feet apiece. Amenities include a recreation room and laundry in the cellar, and rooftop recreation area. James Cheng’s Flushing-based Urban Architectural Design is the architect of record. Demolition work commenced on the existing single-story structure this past December, according to filings.
