Last year, Related Companies chairman Stephen Ross promised New York Times reporter Charles Bagli that the firm would install an iconic sculpture at Hudson Yards that would rival the Eiffel Tower. Ross unveiled the design for the $150 million structure this morning, at an event hosted by Anderson Cooper next to the entrance to the year-old Hudson Yards 7 train station.
West Farms, in the central Bronx, has long been neglected and forgotten by the city. Robert Moses rammed the Cross Bronx Expressway through the area half a century ago, isolating a broad swath of working class communities from the rest of the borough. And the Bronx River, which splits the neighborhood in two, was contaminated by industrial runoff and filled with trash until community groups began cleaning it up the late ’90s. But developers are finally starting to look closely at the working class, black and Latino neighborhood. Mikjor Shllaku, who heads a plumbing company next door in Van Nest, hopes to build a seven-story apartment building at 2015 Vyse Avenue.
Empire State Development (ESD) has formally launched a request for proposals (RFP) seeking a development team for the planned three-story, 1.2-million-square-foot expansion project at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, located at 655 West 34th Street in what’s now called the Hudson Yards District. The expansion was announced earlier this year. The ground-up portion of the project, to be built on the complex’s northern edge, has been dubbed the Transformer Building. It will contain electrical and mechanical infrastructure, plus 665,000 square feet of meeting rooms and exhibition space, a ballroom, and outdoor space. A large truck garage is also expected to be built. FXFOWLE Architects is behind the expansion’s design. Construction is expected to begin by the end of this year, Real Estate Weekly reported.
Bronx-based Ultimate Seven LLC has filed applications for a four-story, 35-key hotel at 3336 Webster Avenue, in the West Bronx’s Norwood section. The project will measure a compact 10,193 square feet and its hotel rooms should average a budget-sized 283 square feet apiece. Guest amenities include a 704-square-foot lobby, 11 off-street parking spaces, a fitness center, a business meeting room, and a breakfast area. Asher Hershkowitz’s Brooklyn-based architecture firm is the architect of record. The 5,100-square-foot site is vacant and stretches 144 feet along Webster Avenue. The Williams Bridge station on Metro-North Railroad is a block to the north.
Since it stood two stories in height in April, the eight-story, 143-unit mixed-use building under development at 504 Myrtle Avenue, in northern Clinton Hill, has topped out. The latest photo comes via prolific construction chronicler Tectonic. The most recent building permits indicate the project grew slightly compared to filings retrieved for YIMBY’s April update. The structure now encompasses 125,585 square feet and has gained two units (up from 141). The ground floor will host 20,304 square feet of retail space, while the floors above will contain rental apartments, averaging 736 square feet apiece. Twenty-eight of them will rent at below-market rates through the affordable housing lottery. Silverstone Property Group and Madison Capital Realty are the developers. HTO Architects is behind the architecture and completion is scheduled for 2017.
