Extell was the city’s first developer to put up a residential building of 1,000 feet or greater, and while the construction of One57 was fraught with complications, practice will hopefully make perfect. Despite initial difficulties and buckling streets, the latest photos from Tectonic show One Manhattan Square is now making major headway, at 250 South Street.
As property values skyrocket in the low-slung eastern edges of Williamsburg, small developers are searching for ways to boost a site’s density without spending exorbitant amounts of money on construction. Increasingly, they file their developments as alterations, rather than new buildings, which allows them to avoid building expensive underground parking. And the J-51 abatement gives landlords a break on their property taxes, in exchange for preserving at least 50% of the old building and keeping the new units rent-stabilized for up to 20 years. One of these enterprising developers has filed alteration applications to expand a little three-story brick apartment building at 196 Montrose Avenue, on the corner of Humboldt Street.
Nush Rudaj has filed applications for a four-story, eight-unit residential building at 192 East 205th Street, in Bedford Park, five blocks north of the B/D train’s Bedford Park Boulevard stop. The building will measure 7,000 square feet, which means units will average 875 square feet. Nassau County-based Shahriar Afshari is the applicant of record, and demolition permits were filed in June to remove the existing 2.5-story wood-framed structure, which sold for $240,000 this past May.
Staten Island-based Cee-Jay Real Estate Development has filed applications for a three-story, two-unit residential building at the vacant lot of 94 Broad Street, in Stapleton. Located four blocks south of the neighborhood’s SIRR station, the building will measure just 1,951 square feet, which means units will average 975 square feet. Stanley Krebushevski’s SMK Architect is the applicant of record. A single-family building was previously proposed in 2009 but never built.
The 10-story, 35-unit rental building at 189 Avenue C, in the East Village, is undergoing a condo conversion, according to EV Grieve. Douglas Elliman is marketing the units, and the first few are available for purchase and immediate occupancy. Existing tenants are not obligated to purchase their unit and can remain tenants without fearing eviction. Before the condos launched earlier this month, the building changed hands for $32.5 million.
