Holmes Towers

Request for Proposals Launched for 300-Unit Mixed-Income Building at Holmes Towers, Upper East Side

Last week, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) launched a request for proposals (RFP) for a development team to build a 300-mixed-income-unit, mixed-use tower on the grounds of the Holmes Towers public housing complex, at 1780 First Avenue in the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side. Holmes Towers – the only public housing on the UES – is the two-building, 25-story complex with 540 rental apartments located on the corner of First Avenue. Requirements for the RFP include incorporating at least 5,000 square feet of space for a community center, replacing the playground that the new tower will be built on (which is located mid-block), and adding trees and landscaping to the property, DNAinfo reported. The new tower will likely designate 50 percent of its apartments as affordable housing, while the rest will rent at market rates. Proposals are due September 30, the same time proposals are due for the 500-mixed-income-unit addition to the Wychoff Gardens housing complex in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Read More


1668 Eastern Parkway. Via Google Maps

Permits Filed: 1668 Eastern Parkway, Ocean Hill Hotel

Yesterday, we told you about a hotel coming to a commercially zoned patch of western Crown Heights. Now, YIMBY has spotted plans for another hotel in the midst of a residential area, but this one is headed for the border between Ocean Hill and Brownsville in eastern Brooklyn. Developer Nehalkumar Gandhi has filed building applications for a six-story hotel at 1668 Eastern Parkway, at the corner of Prospect Place.

Read More

916 Bergen Street, image via Google Maps

Permits Filed: 916 Bergen Street, Crown Heights

The vacant lots that remind Crown Heights of its worst years are slowly giving way to development. On the western edge of the neighborhood, in a lot next to the Franklin Avenue shuttle tracks, a new six-story building is in the works. The development would rise at 916 Bergen Street, between Franklin and Classon Avenues.

Read More

325 Kent Avenue

16-Story, 522-Unit Mixed-Use Building Rises to 11th Floor at 325 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg

The 16-story, 522-unit mixed-use building under construction at 325 Kent Avenue, a block in from the East River in Williamsburg, is now 11 stories in height. Progress on the building – which was only in the foundation stages earlier this year – can be seen thanks to photos taken by Tectonic. The latest building permits indicate the structure will eventually encompass 401,246 square feet. It will feature 9,378 square feet of retail space on the ground and second floors, followed by residential units on the second through 15th floors. Twenty percent of the rental apartments, or 105, will rent at below-market rates through the housing lottery. Amenities include a five-level parking garage (two underground and three above-grade), storage space for 266 bikes, and “recreation space” on the fourth and 16th floors. The building represents the first phase of the five-building, mixed-use Domino Sugar Refinery mega-development. Two Trees Management Company is the developer, SHoP Architects is the design architect, and Ismael Leyva Architects is serving as the architect of record. Completion of the first building is scheduled for 2017.

Read More