Infrastructure

A LinkNYC kiosk. Credit: @linknycofficial on Instagram

Landmarks Approves LinkNYC Wi-Fi Kiosks for Historic Districts and Other Designated Sites

7:30 am on June 30, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass

For a long time, with the proliferation of cell phones, the payphone has been mostly just a historical curiosity. For years now, they have actually been disappearing from New York City streets. Since January, some of them have been replaced by new public communication structures. Now, with a vote Tuesday by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, those structures will be headed to historic districts and other designated sites.

World Trade Center’s Liberty Park Opens Today in the Financial District

6:30 am on June 29, 2016 By Reid Wilson

The World Trade Center’s Liberty Park is now receiving its finishing touches for its grand opening today. The Financial District’s new, one-acre public park is 25 feet above street level and measures 336 feet along Liberty Street between West and Greenwich streets. It will feature 19 planters, a half-dozen species of plants, seating made out of recycled teak, and a 300-foot-long “Living Wall” of greenery along its northern base. Pictures of it ahead of its opening can be seen in a New York Times report. It will be open to all from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day. Aecom’s Joseph E. Brown is the landscape architect, and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey is behind the project. The Santiago Calatrava-designed St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church can also be seen taking shape on the site’s eastern end. That portion of the project is expected to be complete in 2017. YIMBY last brought you an update on Liberty Park when construction was in its final phases in May.

17.5-Acre Berry Lane Park Opens to the Public in Jersey City

6:00 am on June 29, 2016 By Reid Wilson

Mayor Steven Fulop, with the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA) and other officials, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday for the 17.5-acre Berry Lane Park, located in the Bergen-Lafayette section of Jersey City. It is the both the city’s largest municipal park and the first new one in decades. The public park is the site of a former brownfield property bound by Garfield Avenue to the west, NJ Transit’s rail tracks to the south, and Woodward Street to the east. It features two basketball courts, two tennis courts, a baseball diamond, a soccer field, bike paths, and two plazas (one with a splash pad). Over 600 new trees have also been planted. The Department of Recreation is in charge of hosting community events and games in the park. The site once consisted of abandoned and underutilized industrial properties, although the city demolished many of the structures, then remediated and graded the land by 2014. Multiple concrete silos were preserved and utilized for the splash pond. Berry Lane Park is right across the street from NJ Transit’s Garfield Avenue Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station.

City Council Approves Rezoning Proposal Allowing Pedestrian Arcade-to-Retail Conversions Along Water Street, Financial District

1:00 pm on June 23, 2016 By Reid Wilson

Earlier this week, the City Council voted to approve a rezoning proposal that would allow landlords of the commercial properties with public pedestrian arcades along Water Street, between Fulton and Whitehall streets in the Financial District, to convert the arcades into retail space in exchange for renovating adjacent public plazas. The total amount of space that could be converted spans 110,000 square feet across 20 buildings, DNAinfo reported. The rezoning requires retail conversions of greater than 7,500 square feet to be approved through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). It also limits the amount of street frontage chain banks and drugstores can take up, and requires the entire height of the arcade to be built out. Future renovations to the existing public plazas in the area could include new seating and planters, among other upgrades.

City Moving Forward with Public Park Plans at 50-02 39th Avenue, Sunnyside

11:00 am on June 21, 2016 By Reid Wilson

The city’s Parks Department is planning to move forward with transforming the vacant lot at 50-02 39th Avenue, located on the of 50th Street in Sunnyside, into a public park. The city recently designated $3 million to acquire the property from its owner, DBH Associates, DNAinfo reported. DBH acquired the plot in 2007 for $1.45 million and is open to selling the property. The owner attempted to built a two-story, eight-unit apartment building at the site, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission disapproved the plans in 2014. The site is located within the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District, which means the design of the park (and its structural elements) will have to be approved by the LPC.

Development Team Closes on Deal with Port Authority to Rebuild LaGuardia Airport

6:30 am on June 3, 2016 By Reid Wilson

Back in March, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) officially approved plans to rebuild LaGuardia Airport, in East Elmhurst, in addition to incorporating a 24-hour ferry service and an AirTrain to help transport travelers. Now, LaGuardia Gateway Partners – comprised of Vantage Airport Group, Skanska, and Meridiam – has closed on a deal with the Port Authority to actually construct the project, and to operate the new 1.3-million-square-foot airport through 2050, according to Crain’s. Demolition is expected to begin within the next few months on the five-story parking garage in front of the Central Terminal building. The Central Terminal will be the first portion to be redeveloped and is expected to be complete by 2021, followed by Terminals C and D. The development team, which is putting up $1.8 billion of its own money, has already secured $2.5 billion in financing. The Port Authority is responsible for an additional $2.2 billion that will go towards infrastructure work.

Two-Block-Long Public Plaza Coming To DUMBO Heights’s Sand Street Corridor

6:00 am on May 24, 2016 By Reid Wilson

Back in 2013, Kushner Companies, RFR Realty, and LIVWRK acquired, for $375 million from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the five-building, 1.25-million square-foot commercial complex at 55 and 81 Prospect Street, 117 Adams Street, 77 Sands Street, and 175 Pearl Street. The developers have since converted the collection of mid-rise buildings into offices and retail space, dubbed DUMBO Heights. The developers are now constructing a two-block-long public plaza along Sands Street between Adams and Jay streets, according to the Wall Street Journal. The plaza will extend the 15-foot-wide sidewalk by 15 feet. It will include public artwork, seating, and planters. La Fantástica is behind the design, and the Dumbo Improvement District is associated with the project. Current office tenants in the complex including WeWork Cos., Etsy Inc., Frog Design, Alexis Bittar Inc., and retail tenants include Randolph Beer, fitness center Shadowbox, Row House, Bluestone Lane Coffee, and Dig Inn. Roughly 350,000 square feet of commercial space remains vacant, according to Real Estate Weekly.

ULURP Underway for 49-Story, 270-Unit Mixed-Use Tower Proposed at 141 Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn

11:00 am on May 20, 2016 By Reid Wilson

In 2014, Savanna acquired, for $28 million, the three-story commercial building at 141 Willoughby Street, in Downtown Brooklyn. Then in August of 2015, the developer submitted filings to rezone the property in order to build a 44-story, 270-unit mixed-use tower. The city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) is now underway, with the latest step resulting in Community Board 2’s Land Use Committee disapproving the rezoning, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports. The project itself has grown slightly since initially being filed. Proposed at the latest hearing was a 49-story, 270-unit mixed-use building. Eighty-one of the units would rent at below-market rates. The base of the building would feature two stories (plus the cellar) of retail, followed by seven stories of office space. Morris Adjmi Architects is designing. The latest step in ULURP is merely a recommendation. The proposal will now go before the entire Community Board 2. If the rezoning is granted, Savanna would also acquire from the city, for $4.8 million, a small, triangular park located to the north of the site. It has 47,718 square feet of development rights and would permanently remain as a park.

Construction Wrapping Up On World Trade Center’s Liberty Park, Financial District

11:00 am on May 19, 2016 By Reid Wilson

In September of 2015, construction was underway on the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church planned on the eastern end of the also-under-construction, one-acre Liberty Park, located on the southern end of the World Trade Center complex, in the Financial District. Now, construction on the rest of Liberty Park, which is elevated 25 feet above street level, is nearly complete, DNAinfo reports. The new park will feature landscaped greenery, plantings, seating and benches, and a 300-foot-long “Living Wall” along its northern base wall. Opening is expected some time this summer. As for the church, being designed by Santiago Calatrava (who also designed the World Trade Center Transportation Hub), construction is expected to last into 2017. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey is behind the project.

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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