The City Planning Commission voted this morning to certify the rezoning of Midtown East, beginning the public review process for a dramatic upzoning that the city hopes will generate new office buildings.
The Pestana Hotel Group has purchased, for $16 million, a 99-year ground-lease for the 2,469-square-foot vacant lot at 23 East 39th Street, in Midtown East. The hotelier is planning to develop a 27-story, 97-key hotel at the site, Commercial Observer reported. Building permits, approved by the Department of Buildings in December 2015, are currently on file for a 27-story, 96-key structure, which YIMBY reported on in 2014. The plans indicate the tower will encompass 39,964 square feet and rise 273 feet to its pinnacle. Gene Kaufman’s SoHo-based architecture firm is behind the plans, although it wasn’t stated if Pestana will move forward with the same design. Arbalest Capital Corp. is the property owner. The site was home to a five-story building until March 2016, when it was demolished.
A Queens-based LLC has filed applications for a six-story, nine-unit mixed-use building at 38-07 31st Street, in the Dutch Kills section of Long Island City. The project will measure 11,203 square feet and rise 60 feet above street level. There will be 1,651 square feet of commercial-warehouse space on the ground floor, followed by residential units on the second through sixth floors. The apartments should average 726 square feet apiece, indicative of rentals. Emanuel Kambanis’s Long Island City-based GKA Design Group Inc. is the architect of record. The 25-foot-wide, 2,190-square-foot lot is occupied by a single-story warehouse. Demolition permits have not been filed.
Brooklyn-based Centro Paz Construction Corp. has filed applications for a four-story, four-unit residential building at 1241 43rd Street, in northern Borough Park. The project will measure 6,689 square feet and its full-floor residential units should average 1,212 square feet apiece, indicative of apartments with family-sized configurations. Douglas Pulaski’s Brooklyn-based Bricolage Designs is the architect of record. The 22-foot-wide, 2,203-square-foot lot is vacant.
Construction is now 16 floors above street level on the 43-story, 467-unit mixed-use building under development at 29-26 Northern Boulevard, in the Queens Plaza section of Long Island City. Progress on the structure can be seen thanks to photos posted to the YIMBY Forums. The latest building permits indicate the tower will encompass 500,302 square feet and rise 481 feet to the top of its bulkhead. There will be 11,372 square feet of retail space on the cellar through second floors, followed by 467 apartments across the second through 41st floors. The units should average 791 square feet apiece, indicative of rentals. Simon Baron Development is the developer and Stephen B. Jacobs Group is the architect. Completion is expected in 2018.
