212 Fifth Avenue will see new life as a residential building. On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved changes to the structure, which was originally constructed as an office building in 1913. The redevelopment of the building is being done by Building & Land Technology, Madison Equities and Thor Equities.
The Real Deal reports that law firm Skadden has signed a 20-year lease for 550,000 square feet at Brookfield Property Partners’ 1 Manhattan West, located at 401 9th Avenue, on the West Side. Construction will begin immediately on the 69-story, 2.1-million square-foot office tower, and opening is scheduled for 2019.
Back in September, YIMBY reported on the first permit filings for a new 10-story residential building at 514 West 24th Street, which Roman and Williams is designing. Now, we can reveal the first drawings and floorplans for the project, which is under development by JDS, and will soon rise next to the recently-completed 508 West 24th Street.
Arker Companies has plans to expand a six-story, 13,300 square-foot commercial building at 211 West 28th Street, in Chelsea, “into a roughly 24,600 square-foot affordable housing building,” The Real Deal reports.
The issue of shadows over Midtown had seemingly been settled over a century ago, with the construction of the neighborhood’s first skyscrapers, but many of the new trees in New York’s urban forest will stand a substantial height taller than the existing plateau. While critics have lurked in the background since the death of the original Torre Verre, they are once again out in full force, seeking new limitations on development due to “the shadows.”
