East Harlem may be experiencing a renaissance, but the stretch of Park Avenue covered by the elevated Metro-North Railroad tracks remains inhospitable and littered with vacant lots. Now, development may be coming to a barren stretch at 1516 Park Avenue, between 110th and 111th streets.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED) have selected the team behind the Lowline proposal to lease the vacant, 60,000-square-foot Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal, located under Delancey Street between Clinton and Norfolk streets on the Lower East Side. This marks the first city approval for the project, bringing it significantly closer to reality. The public park would take up roughly 43,500 square feet of the abandoned terminal.
XIN Development, the American arm of Chinese builder Xinyuan Real Estate, is pushing forward with its second major condo project in New York City. The Beijing-based firm filed plans for a seven-story apartment building at 615 Tenth Avenue, between West 44th and West 45th streets in Hell’s Kitchen.
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.
A nearly 150-year-old residential structure in Brooklyn will soon get a facelift. The Landmarks Preservation Commission recently approved the restoration of 218 Guernsey Street, located at the corner of Oak Street in the Greenpoint Historic District.