577 Ninth Avenue

28-Story Hotel-Residential-Retail Project Rises to 14th Floor at 577 Ninth Avenue, Hell’s Kitchen

Back in June of 2014, YIMBY revealed renderings of the planned 28-story mixed-use building at 577 Ninth Avenue (a.k.a. 400 West 42nd Street), located between West 41st and 42nd streets, on the southern end of Hell’s Kitchen. Construction has since kicked off at the site and the building is now 14 stories above street level, as seen in a photos posted to the YIMBY Forums. New details on the project have also been disclosed by The Real Deal. Once complete, the 218,872-square-foot building, dubbed Pod Times Square, will feature a 665-key hotel, 48 residential units, and 25,000 square feet of retail space across the cellar through second floors. The building will be operated by BD Hotels under the Pod Hotels brand. The apartments will be rented fully furnished by the hotel as Pod Pads. The one- and two-bedroom apartments will be located on the 23rd through 27th floors and will measure between 400 and 800 square feet apiece. Guest amenities include storage for 52 bikes, a lounge, private storage rooms, a fitness center, laundry facilities, and an indoor/outdoor recreational area on the 28th floor. Friedman Group and Landis Group are the developers, while SLCE Architects is the architect of record. Completion is expected in 2017.

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80-85 31st Street

Two Six-Story, Nine-Unit Mixed-Use Buildings Filed at 30-85 31st Street, Astoria

The Vass Stevens Group has filed applications for two six-story, nine-unit mixed-use buildings at 30-85 – 30-87 31st Street, in central Astoria, located two blocks from the Broadway stop on the N/Q trains. Each will measure 10,249 square feet and will contain 765- and 833-square-foot retail and medical office components, respectively, on the ground and cellar levels. The residential units, located across the second through sixth floors, should average 707 square feet apiece, indicative of rental apartments. The structures will be topped by an outdoor terrace on the roof. Queens-based Gerald J. Caliendo is the architect of record. The 50-foot-wide lot is currently occupied by a two-and-a-half-story, wood-framed house. Demolition permits were filed in December.

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South view from the 62nd floor of Manhattan View at MiMA. All photographs by the author

Scoping Out the Views from Condo Conversion Manhattan View at MiMA

The huge MiMA residential building, designed by Arquitectonica, opened in Hell’s Kitchen in 2011. Its 500 rental units stretching up to the 49th floor were topped with a further 151 units across 13 more floors. Those luxury units were known as One MiMA Tower, and they opened in 2012. Now, they are undergoing a change, and YIMBY got the first look inside.

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