When we last checked in with 21 West End Avenue back in 2014, only a few stories of the 43-story tower had risen above street level. Now, Dermot Company is putting the finishing touches on the 529-foot-tall building between West 60th and 61st streets, and YIMBY reader Tectonic swung by for a construction update.
It’ll eventually hold 616 apartments, ranging from studios to three-bedrooms. 127 of them were already up for grabs through an affordable housing lottery. Asking rents for the affordable units will start at $565 for studios, $607 for one-bedrooms, $735 for two-bedrooms, and $835 for three-bedrooms. They’ll rent to families earning $20,743 to $50,100 per year. Listings haven’t appeared for the market-rate apartments yet, but rents will start at $3,700 a month.
The base will include retail and a four-story public school, which will have 700 seats for students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The SLCE-designed tower actually looks better than the renderings, and the school appears to have an interesting, carved-out courtyard in the middle.
21 West End Avenue, photo by Tectonic
The rental development is the first of five towers in Riverside Center, a long-planned megaproject enabled by a rezoning in 2010.
Silverstein’s 1 West End Avenue is slowly taking shape next door, and the 24-story building will eventually host 247 condos and 116 affordable rental units. A separate seven-story building will house the below-market-rate apartments, and renters will have their own entryway at 10 Freedom Place. That separate entrance ignited the “poor door” controversy in 2014 and inspired the state legislature to ban the practice of building separate entrances for affordable apartments.
Last year, Extell Development and Carlyle Group filed plans for two more towers at Riverside Center. But the Commercial Observer reported that they unloaded both sites for $265 million in December. It’s unclear whether the new owner, General Investment and Development Companies, will move forward with those plans.
21 West End Avenue, photo by Tectonic
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I checked the area around this building. It’s fantastic! I apply for apartment in this building. Long process but I hope me and my family move on there.