Search Results for: rezone

Amidst pushback from locals and activists, the Olnick Organization has released a Plan B proposal for its Lenox Terrace expansion, reports the Post. Last week, the City Planning Commission approved an application from the complex's owner to rezone part of the neighborhood and allow five 28-story towers with a mix of market-rate and affordable units to be built at the site. The alternate plan unveiled on Tuesday presents a scaled-down version that wouldn't require a zoning change but also wouldn't include any of the affordable units or public amenities in the original plan.
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Policy

Lenox Terrace rezoning in Harlem gets green light from City Planning

Photo: Lenox Terrace Aerial; Credit: Davis Brody Bond

February 4, 2020

Lenox Terrace rezoning in Harlem gets green light from City Planning

A plan to bring a mixed-use development with five buildings and 1,600 apartments to Central Harlem got a much-needed approval on Monday. The City Planning Commission voted in favor of an application from the Olnick Organization to rezone part of the neighborhood, clearing the way for five 28-story luxury towers to be constructed at the existing Lenox Terrace complex.
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Policy

Bushwick rezoning stalled after city dismisses community plan

Photo by Mike Steele on Flickr

January 13, 2020

Bushwick rezoning stalled after city dismisses community plan

The plan to rezone Bushwick hit a possibly fatal roadblock Monday after city officials and local politicians failed to reach an agreement on affordable housing requirements. The city said it will not study the Bushwick Community Plan (BCP), first envisioned by the community in 2014 to address out-of-context development, as part of its proposal, effectively postponing the rezoning. After years of Bushwick residents calling for a study of the area's growing gentrification, the city released its official rezoning plan last April. But local stakeholders and leaders, including Council Members Antonio Reynoso and Rafel Espinal Jr., said the city's plan fell short of the vision laid out in the BCP.
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Policy

Plans filed for large apartment building on parking lot of classic Coney Island restaurant Gargiulo’s

View of 1517 Surf Avenue; Photo courtesy of Ace Aerial

January 9, 2020

Plans filed for large apartment building on parking lot of classic Coney Island restaurant Gargiulo’s

The owner of a 100-year-old Italian restaurant in Coney Island has agreed to lease the establishment's neighboring parking lot to a luxury real estate developer. Gargiulo's Restaurant owner Louis Russo filed a 99-year ground lease for the lot at 1517 Surf Avenue, located about one block from the boardwalk, with developer LCOR, as first reported by the Brooklyn Paper. According to the developer, plans will likely involve a mixed-income residential development and ground-floor retail.
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New Developments

Borough president rejects plan for five-building luxury development in Harlem

Aerial view of the project; Credit: Davis Brody Bond

December 17, 2019

Borough president rejects plan for five-building luxury development in Harlem

A developer's plan to rezone a neighborhood in Central Harlem to make way for a mixed-use development hit another roadblock this week. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer on Monday rejected a rezoning application filed by the Olnick Organization to construct five 28-story luxury towers and one mid-rise building located at the existing Lenox Terrace complex. In her recommendation, Brewer said the project lacks the "public and private investments necessary to make it a prudent exercise of planning for future growth."
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Policy

December 6, 2019

69 newly constructed affordable units available in East New York, from $856/month

Linwood Park Apartments, a new development at 315 Linwood Street in East New York, has just launched an affordable housing lottery. The 10-story complex is located in the rezoned Atlantic Avenue corridor and is made up entirely of affordable units, available to those earning 40, 50, and 60 percent of the area median income. 69 apartments are available in the lottery, ranging from $856/month studios to $1,504/month three-bedrooms. Eight of those units have been set aside for those who qualify for Section 8, meaning eligible residents will pay 30 percent of their income for rent.
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Affordable Housing

Work starts on transforming Hudson Street to a ‘grand allée’ with wide sidewalks and bike lanes

Courtesy of Matthews Nielsen Landscape Architecture, P.C. with attribution to W Architecture and Landscape Architecture, LLC

December 4, 2019

Work starts on transforming Hudson Street to a ‘grand allée’ with wide sidewalks and bike lanes

In May, the city announced plans to make Hudson Street between Canal and West Houston Streets in Hudson Square into a grand boulevard with wider sidewalks, parking-protected bike lanes, and small outdoor "living rooms" with seating surrounded by greenery are moving forward with design and construction teams on board. And now, work has officially commenced on the first phase of the project, shortly after Disney revealed its forthcoming Hudson Square headquarters, which will bring 5,000 new employees to the area.
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Manhattan community board says no to Central Harlem developer’s rezoning plan

Aerial view of the developer’s planned updates. Credit: Davis Brody Bond

November 8, 2019

Manhattan community board says no to Central Harlem developer’s rezoning plan

Manhattan Community Board 10 voted Wednesday night against a developer’s plan that would substantially rezone the Lenox Terrace neighborhood in Central Harlem and pave the way for construction of five new 28-story luxury towers and big-box retail stores. The rezoning application, filed by the Olnick Organization, asked the city to rezone Lenox Terrace from its current residential status to the C6-2 designation found in "the central business district and regional commercial centers,” according to the city’s zoning resolution. The community board’s vote sided with the Lenox Terrace Association of Concerned Tenants (LT-ACT), which opposes the rezoning and has demanded the developer withdraw the application.
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Policy

City seeks operator for long-planned memorial and cultural center at Harlem’s African burial ground site

Image of 126 Street Bus Depot courtesy of NYCEDC

October 22, 2019

City seeks operator for long-planned memorial and cultural center at Harlem’s African burial ground site

The city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) is now accepting bids for the long-planned redevelopment of the East 126th Street Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus Depot into a memorial and cultural education center honoring the historic African burial ground found in the early 2000s at the site. In collaboration with the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the EDC has released a request for expressions of interest looking for a non-profit organization to operate the cultural center and outdoor memorial in Harlem.
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Uncategorized

Harlem church’s rezoning proposal includes new tower and music school, but still no developer

Rendering by FXCollaborative

August 28, 2019

Harlem church’s rezoning proposal includes new tower and music school, but still no developer

A Harlem church looking to rezone part of Central Park North revealed plans this week to incorporate a music school and cultural center to its proposal for a 33-story residential tower. During a City Planning Commission hearing on Wednesday, La Hermosa Christian Church and FXCollaborative presented their design for the apartment building and the three-story community facility space. Congregants and church officials say the building at 5 West 110th Street is deteriorating, with many of its spaces unusable and inaccessible. "The project that we're proposing means the survival of our church," La Hermosa Pastor Dan Feliciano told the commissioners.
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Five properties in Gowanus may be landmarked ahead of proposed rezoning

Via LPC

June 25, 2019

Five properties in Gowanus may be landmarked ahead of proposed rezoning

Five properties in Gowanus may be landmarked as the Brooklyn neighborhood prepares to be rezoned. The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday voted to calendar eight buildings across five properties in the neighborhood, describing them as both architecturally significant, as well as closely associated with the history of the Gowanus Canal. The decision to calendar the sites comes after the city released in January its rezoning draft for Gowanus, which includes enabling more residential buildings and access to the waterfront.
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Policy

Image courtesy of NYCEDC.

June 5, 2019

Plan to convert African burial ground in Harlem into cultural center and memorial moves forward

The city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) has said it will begin the search for a nonprofit organization to operate the long-in-the-works Harlem African Burial Ground in East Harlem this fall. A decade of research and planning has gone into the task of converting the city block–home to the unused MTA 126th Street bus depot–into a cultural center and outdoor memorial that will honor its past state as a burial ground for enslaved and free African people. City officials say the project will make use of new apartments rising on a newly-rezoned adjoining site as an ongoing source of funding, as first reported by THE CITY.
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History

City releases Bushwick rezoning proposal

Photo via CityRealty

April 25, 2019

City releases Bushwick rezoning proposal

The city unveiled on Tuesday its proposal to rezone Bushwick, five years after local residents and officials called on the Department of City Planning to study the growing out-of-context development in the neighborhood. The Bushwick Neighborhood Plan calls for creating and preserving affordable homes, improving public park space, protecting historic buildings, and supporting small businesses. The plan covers 300 blocks, bordered by Broadway to the south, Cypress Avenue to the north, Flushing Avenue to the west, and Trinity and Broadway Junction to the east.
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Policy

Image via CityRealty

March 1, 2019

Cuomo pleads with Amazon to reconsider Long Island City deal

Update 3/1/19, 1:10pm: According to Crain's, Governor Cuomo said today on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show, "They have given no indication that they would reconsider. I have no reason to believe that Amazon is reconsidering. Would I like them to? Certainly. But I have no reason to believe that." Amazon's Valentine's Day breakup with New York City has been rough on Governor Andrew Cuomo; the New York Times reports that Cuomo has continued to beseech the retail giant to build one of its two new headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, as it had announced plans to do last November. According to the Times, Cuomo has privately assured Amazon officials that he would ease the company's path to any needed approvals and is "working intensely behind the scenes"–including a personal pitch to founder Jeff Bezos–to get Amazon to reconsider.
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Policy

Amazon is rethinking its move to Long Island City

Via Wikimedia

February 8, 2019

Amazon is rethinking its move to Long Island City

After facing months of intense backlash from residents and local officials, Amazon is rethinking its plan to open a massive complex in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City, the Washington Post reported on Friday. Sources told the newspaper, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, that executives at the tech company have had discussions to reassess the plan to open its "HQ2" in New York City. "The question is whether it's worth it if the politicians in New York don't want the project, especially with how people in Virginia and Nashville have been so welcoming," a source told the Post.
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Policy

City releases Gowanus rezoning draft with a focus on waterfront resiliency

Via NYC Planning

January 30, 2019

City releases Gowanus rezoning draft with a focus on waterfront resiliency

The Department of City Planning on Wednesday released a draft of its plan to rezone Gowanus as a way to bring more affordable housing, jobs, and community resources to the Brooklyn neighborhood. In the works for nearly three years, the proposal includes a waterfront access plan that creates public walkways centered around the canal, as well as builds a more resilient shoreline.
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Policy

Via Practice for Architecture and Urbanism

December 11, 2018

A megachurch in East New York will become an ‘urban village’ with 2,100 affordable apartments

A Christian megachurch in East New York is partnering with the Gotham Organization to redevelop their East New York campus into a mixed-income community, or "urban village" as Reverend A.R. Bernard calls it, of 2,100 affordable units and neighborhood amenities. The plan from the Christian Cultural Center, led by Bernard, will supplement the existing church at 12020 Flatlands Avenue in Brooklyn and create a community with CCC at its core.
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Affordable Housing

Poll shows a majority of New Yorkers approve of Amazon’s move to Queens

Rendering of Plaxall’s proposed (but not approved) mixed-use LIC project courtesy of WXY architecture + urban design

December 6, 2018

Poll shows a majority of New Yorkers approve of Amazon’s move to Queens

A majority of New Yorkers approve of Amazon moving to Long Island City despite opposition from Queens activists and politicians, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. Fifty-seven percent of all respondents said they support the company's plan to build a waterfront office complex in Queens, with 26 percent disproving. And approval among Queens residents is even higher, with 60 percent supporting the deal. But the poll did find a more divided opinion about the potential $3 billion in public incentives and grants offered to Amazon by the city and state, with 46 percent approving of the subsidies and 44 percent disapproving.
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Policy

Via CityRealty

November 30, 2018

NYC Council to grill city leaders on Amazon deal

Citing concerns about the closed-door deal that drove Amazon to choose Long Island City as home for its second headquarters, the New York City Council announced it will host three hearings to question both city leaders and company exeuctives. Council Speaker Corey Johnson said the first hearing will take place on Dec. 12 to look at how the deal happened, as the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. "One of the major perversions of this is that was all done behind closed doors, with nondisclosure agreements, and without the public or elected officials who weren't including feeling like they had any say," Johnson told the WSJ.
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Policy

See the waterfront site in Long Island City where Amazon will bring its new mixed-use campus

Rendering of Plaxall’s proposed (but not yet approved) mixed-use LIC project courtesy of WXY architecture + urban design

November 13, 2018

See the waterfront site in Long Island City where Amazon will bring its new mixed-use campus

Amazon officially announced on Tuesday its plan to bring its second headquarters to Long Island City, following a 14-month long contest among hundreds of cities across the country. The company will also open a second new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, with each location expected to house 25,000 new employees; Nashville will become home to Amazon's "Operations Center of Excellence," equipped for 5,000 full-time jobs. In Queens, Amazon intends to construct the mixed-use complex across both public and private sites that sit along the East River, in an area known as Anable Basin. Although the HQ2 project still must undergo a public and environmental review, as well as a possible rezoning, the tech company said it will receive over $1.7 billion in incentives from New York State for its project, which is expected to cost over $3.6 billion, and has the potential for another $1.3 billion "as-of-right" benefits from New York City.
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Google expanding to St. John’s Terminal in Hudson Square

Rendering via COOKFOX

November 8, 2018

Google expanding to St. John’s Terminal in Hudson Square

Google is expanding its New York City footprint once again. The tech giant is close to inking a deal to buy or lease a planned 1.3 million-square-foot office building at St. John's Terminal, formerly a freight terminal in Hudson Square, that is undergoing a major revamp by COOKFOX Architects. According to the Wall Street Journal, the building, located at 550 Washington Street, could house more than 8,500 Google employees when the project wraps up in 2022. News of this impending deal comes just days after it was reported that Amazon will move its second headquarters, along with 25,000 workers, to Long Island City, although no plan has formally been announced.
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New Developments

Midtown pocket park with an urban waterfall is designated a National Historic Place

Via Terry Tynes on Flickr (CC)

October 8, 2018

Midtown pocket park with an urban waterfall is designated a National Historic Place