Developer Six Sigma has acquired, for $3.92 million, 4,900 square feet of High Line Transfer Corridor air rights for its planned 10-story, 61-unit condominium project at 517 West 29th Street, in West Chelsea. The development rights will be used to build larger and taller, the New York Post reported. Not including the recently-acquired air rights, the 9,875-square-foot site can accommodate up to 74,260 square feet of residential space, plus an additional 24,490 square feet of commercial or community space. Plans have not been filed with the Buildings Department, although demolition permits were filed in August for the existing six-story warehouse. A construction timeline has not been disclosed.
Pre-demolition 517 West 29th Street. Image via Google Maps.
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Like together on larger and taller (10-story), notice from the development notified us already.
I don’t understand the public policy purpose of allowing the so-called “air rights” of one land parcel (e.g., the right to build a 100 foot building with a specified footprint) to be transferred to say an adjacent land parcel, to enable the builder of the second parcel to build a 200 foot building (i.e., the 100 feet the owner was entitled to build, plus the additional 100 feet in air rights that he purchased from the adjacent land owner) with the same footprint.
The 200 foot building permitted via the sale of land rights will block far more light than two 100 foot buildings would have blocked.
What is the public policy purpose of allowing the transfer of air rights?