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.
Jenel Management has filed applications for a 19-story, 195,705-square-foot office building at 540 Fulton Street, in Downtown Brooklyn. The 305-foot-tall project would contain 173,963 square feet of commercial space, a majority of which will be utilized for offices. The ground-floor office lobby will feature a storage room for nine bikes, and the office space will take up floors three through 19. Retail will fill the rest of the cellar, ground, and second floors. Jonathan Marvel’s TriBeCa-based Marvel Architects is the architect of record. The 110-foot-wide, 18,531-square-foot lot was, until recently, occupied by a two-story, 26,000-square-foot commercial-retail building. According to filings, the building was demolished in December of 2015.
Earlier this week, YIMBY reported on applications to expand, by five stories, the 20-story, 115,000-square-foot multi-use commercial building at 685 Fifth Avenue, located on the corner of East 54th Street in Midtown. It was previously reported that Michael Shvo was in contract to acquire, from property owners General Growth Properties and Thor Equities, 90,000 square feet of office space (the entire office portion). That deal has since fallen through, and now, Gulaylar Group is in contract for the office space, according to The Real Deal. As part of the deal, the new owner will also develop the five-story office expansion. The sale is expected to close later this year. The lower portion of the building is currently undergoing a retail redevelopment. Its 23,400 square feet was leased to Coach in February and will become the retailer’s flagship store.
In March, details were revealed of the proposed rezoning of Industry City – a six-million-square-foot industrial-commercial complex – located west of the Gowanus Expressway, in Greenwood and Sunset Park. The developers – Jamestown Properties, Belvedere Capital, and Angelo Gordon – are now moving forward with a piece of the overall redevelopment that is independent of the rezoning. Building 19, at 168 39th Street (a.k.a. 148 39th Street), on the corner of Second Avenue, is going to be converted into 500,000 square feet of office space, according to Commercial Observer. The office space will be located across the first seven floors of the building. The conversion will feature a new lobby, new windows, and upgrades to infrastructure and equipment, like the installation of modern elevators. The Brooklyn Nets recently completed their new 70,000 square-foot training facility, called the Hospital for Special Surgery Training Center, on the eighth floor of the building.
In February, we reported that an automobile dealership building in Hell’s Kitchen was going to grow vertically, to add office space. Now, we can show you architect Rafael Viñoly’s design for 787 Eleventh Avenue.
