Filings for new residential buildings have slowed to a crawl as the real estate lobby and the construction unions fight over the future of the 421-a tax abatement, but commercial development is alive and well across the city. Yesterday, we spotted plans for a six-story office building at 77 Chrystie Street in the Lower East Side.
Back in 2014, Thor Equities and General Growth Properties were in contract to acquire the four-story, 21,837-square-foot commercial-retail building at 220 West 57th Street, in Midtown. Now, the developers are expecting to close on the property – an individual landmark dubbed the Society House of the American Society of Civil Engineers – for $85 million in June, according to The Real Deal. Its existing tenant, Lee’s Art Shop, is in the process of moving out, probably in time for the sale, DNAinfo reports. The new owners plan to renovate the building into luxury retail space. Any exterior alterations to the building will have to be approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The property comes with 104,160 square feet of air rights.
Fortuna Realty Group has filed permits to demolish the four five-story commercial buildings spanning 24-30 West 39th Street, in Midtown South. The hotel developer acquired 24-28 West 39th Street for $18.3 million in 2014, DNAinfo reports, although it has not yet officially acquired 30 West 39th Street. Plans for the site have not been disclosed, but the assemblage could accommodate up to 86,620 square feet of commercial space. That means a hotel, office building, or a community-facility-based project could eventually be built. A few tenants must first vacate the premises before the building can be demolished.
Randy Franza, doing business as an anonymous Staten Island-based LLC, has filed applications for four three-story, two-family mixed-use buildings at 4065-4077 Victory Boulevard, in Travis-Chelsea, located on Staten Island’s West Shore. Two of the structure will each measure 3,158 square feet, while the other two will each measure a slightly larger 3,821 square feet. Across the entire development, the apartments should average 926 square feet apiece. All of them will also have commercial-retail space on the ground floors. On average, each will feature 1,200 square feet of commercial space. Staten Island-based Joseph M. Morace is the architect of record. The site, on the corner of Parish Avenue, was subdivided in March. A single-story building that once housed a deli must first be demolished.
Back in November of 2015, renderings were revealed of the planned 15-story, 99-unit mixed-use building planned at 42-20 27th Street, in the Queens Plaza section of Long Island City. Now, excavation is ongoing at the site, The Court Square Blog reports. It was previously reported the project would rise 18 stories and contain 195 rental apartments, but filings were never updated to reflect those figures; they still detail a 15-story, 99-unit project. The structure will encompass 141,077 square feet, of which 20,304 square feet will be designated for ground-floor retail. The residential units should average 1,160 square feet apiece, indicative of condominiums. Amenities listed in the Schedule A include a 573-square-foot bicycle storage room, private residential storage, and an inner courtyard. Rabsky Group is the developer, with ODA New York behind the design. Completion is expected in spring 2018, per on-site signage.
