Major Developments:
Developers with a potential 2,600 housing units plan to apply for the property tax break 485x. Developers must register with HPD to signal their intention of applying for the incentive. 118 buildings are expected to have fewer than 100 units, meaning they avoid a $40 per hour construction wage floor that kicks in at that threshold. Under 485x, developers citywide must pay the minimum wage for projects with 100 or more units.Even higher wages kick in for larger projects in certain areas of the city. Of the projected units, 540 will be income-restricted, with most projects abiding by a 485x option that requires units to be affordable, on average, to those earning 80% of the area median income. Developers of three projects told HPD they expect to build 99 housing units: 150 Lawrence Street in Brooklyn. 3556 Holland Avenue and 151 South Elliott Place in Brooklyn.
The Soloviev Group and Mohegan is offering equity access up to 12% of any initial public equity raised for the development, to be earmarked for NYC residents to share in the financial returns of the casino. Soloviev will also provide investment allocations to state and city employee-related pension funds on a preferential basis. A capital raise wouldn’t begin before 2027 and is contingent on Soloviev securing a gaming license. The vacant seven-acre site/land on First Avenue is between East 38th and East 41st streets. Approximately 1,047 apartments could be built, roughly half of which would be affordable, 1,250 hotel rooms, a food hall, a spa, an art gallery, and a gaming facility spanning nearly 300,000 square feet.
The Trump administration is set to shutter a NASA research center in New York City, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Artimus, Phoenix Realty Group will build 500 units on Stapleton waterfront. A quarter of those units will be set aside for households earning between 40 and 80% of the area median income. The developers will control the site through a 99-year ground lease with the city and make payments in lieu of taxes equal to the value of the 485x tax break. The two-building project will be the largest residential development in the city to use mass timber. The project is expected to be approximately 500,000 square feet.
MTA moves to build apartments above Second Avenue subway extension. The transit authority plans to rezone the area and calls for the developer to build 684 units in East Harlem. The MTA filed plans to rezone the block on the south side of East 125th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues. The site is where the extended Q line is expected to terminate when the next subway phase is built.
RXR, Ivanhoé Cambridge extended a $1 billion mortgage at 1211 Sixth Avenue. Owners will invest $300 million to modernize the Midtown office.
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development is proposing to rezone 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension for a 1.5-million-square-foot residential tower with 1,263 apartments, of which 253 to 379 would be affordable. The 350,000-square-foot office building, Rabina and Park Tower Group control of the site through a long-term ground lease with the city.
167-171 Clermont Avenue is slated for a condo pivot, currently houses 110 units, aka known as the Clermont Armory.
72 Asset Management has maintained that the parking lot next to Citi Field will stay a parking lot if it doesn’t secure a casino license.
Related and Wynn Resorts announced that they would no longer apply for one of the casino licenses. They will build a hotel and office tower instead, along with up to 4,000 housing units. Related needs to amend a 2009 rezoning of the yards to be less condo-centric.
Related Fund Management’s portfolio sale of rent-regulated housing in the Bronx, whose deeds are hitting records piecemeal. The six-story building at 2160 Holland Avenue has 85 units. Related sold the portfolio at a discount to PH Realty Capital and Rockledge.
Safra’s AVRS Partners joins Vanbarton in archdiocese conversion. The Vanbarton Group bought the Catholic Church’s former Manhattan headquarters at 1011 First Avenue for $103 million to the Archdiocese of New York for the office building. Vanbarton is partnering with AVRS Partners on the project.
City Council signs off on plan to build 4,600 homes along Atlantic Avenue. Rezoning agreed to rezone a 21-block area that spans Prospect Heights, northwestern Crown Heights, and southern Bedford Stuyvesant along Atlantic Avenue. The rezoning, known as the Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan, or AAMUP, allows for new housing construction in the area, 1,900 apartments will be below-market rate, and are expected to be built over the next 10 years.
The approval follows more than a decade of efforts to change the area’s outdated zoning. Brooklyn’s Community Board 8 began the process in 2013.
Hundreds of Israeli investors lost a collective $70 million after Madison Realty Capital took control of the failed HAP Seven residential development in Washington Heights. HAP Investment founders Nir Amsel, Amir Hasid and Eran Polack recently notified investors that the court officially transferred the 4452 Broadway property to Madison Realty Capital following Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the New York State Supreme Court.
The MTA board approved plans to acquire 18 properties split between the western Bronx and New Rochelle in Westchester County. The acquisitions would pave the way for the $3 billion extension of the Metro-North railroad.
Borough Developers signed a 99-year ground lease with John Mullins & Sons to take control of a 19,000-square-foot corner assemblage in Fort Greene. Borough Developers is set to pay $1.4 million annually for 673-695 Fulton Street, a deal that will cost $139 million over its lifetime. With plans to build an 81,000-square-foot development with rentals and ground-floor retail.