The saga behind the rise of 53 West 53rd Street is finally drawing to a close, and after excavation began approximately one year ago, foundation work is finally beginning for the future supertall. When we last checked on the project, digging had made some progress, but the latest photo set from ILNY shows the base of a crane has now been installed, rebar is arriving, and that excavation work has seemingly wrapped up.
Permits were filed early last year for a 36-story, 372-unit residential building at 225 East 39th Street/222 East 40th Street, in Midtown East, and YIMBY later revealed renderings of the project that summer. Since then, a six-story garage was demolished, and now foundation work is underway, per Curbed. The rental units — 20 percent of which will be let at below market rates — will spread across 343,187 square feet of space, with units averaging 922 square feet apiece. Fisher Brothers is developing, and Handel Architects is designing, with completion expected in 2017.
Developer Sheldon Solow has filed applications for a 42-story, 770,812 square-foot mixed-use building at 685 First Avenue, Murray Hill, located five blocks from of Grand Central Terminal. The building will contain 550 residential units across nearly 705,000 square feet, for average units of 1,282 square feet. Retail space on the ground floor will measure 10,088 square feet, and amenity space will span the second and third floors, featuring a pool, fitness center, library, and private recreational and assembly spaces.
The old Mercedes dealership at 520 West 41st Street and Eleventh Avenue is meeting a quick demise, paving the way for Silverstein Properties to begin preparation work for their future mixed-use development. While the project must still pass through ULURP, YIMBY revealed preliminary renderings last June, showing a 1,400-unit tower rising above a significant retail podium. Now we have a few overhead shots of demolition progress taken from the nearly-completed Skye, just a few hundred feet to the northwest.
Last week, hotel developer Sam Chang filed plans for a 25-story hotel at 338 West 39th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Now he has another hotel in the works next door at 342 West 39th Street.
