Community District
Find the planning projects in your community district.
Manhattan CD05 Projects
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Manhattan Community District 05
450 7th Avenue, Rm. 2109
New York, NY 10123
Phone: 212.465.0907
Fax: 212.465.1628
Email: office@cb5manhattan.org
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Columbus Circle
With the recent completion of the Time Warner Center, renovations to the monument and circle itself, and restoration of the 2 Columbus Circle building, the Columbus Circle area of midtown Manhattan is quickly growing into its own small neighborhood. The area, which runs between 54th Street and 63rd Street and between Broadway and West End Avenue, is seeing significant growth in luxury condominium and apartment development, with at least three major developments currently under construction. In October 2006, consumer electronics retailer Best Buy signed a 15-year-lease on 46,000 square feet just north of the Circle.
Recent headlines
Building Design for 2 Columbus Circle Emerges to the Public
May 1, 2008
New York Times
Lost Opportunities at Columbus Circle?
March 30, 2007
New York Sun
Columbus Circle Revitalization Continues
February 22, 2007
New York Sun
East Side Access
The East Side Access (ESA) project will connect the Long Island Rail Road's (LIRR) Main and Port Washington lines in Queens to a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The new connection will increase the LIRR's capacity to provide service into Manhattan, dramatically shorten travel time for Long Island commuters, and provide a new commuter rail station in Sunnyside, Queens.
Construction was scheduled to begin years ago but has been delayed due to funding issues. The MTA is pushing forward with the plan, selecting a contractor for tunneling in July 2006 and estimating the project will be completed by 2013. Cost estimates remain unclear and continue to rise. Federal government projections estimate the project to be over $7 billion.
Recent headlines
East Side Access Project Progresses Underground
July 18, 2008
New York Daily News
Progress Made on East Side Access Project
July 3, 2008
NY1
Jacobs Engineering Group Awarded Contract for East Side Access Project
April 29, 2008
Other
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Horizen Tower (39 West 23rd Street)
Horizen Global has announced plans for a 21-story residential tower at 39 West 23rd Street in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. Despite a negative vote by Community Board 5 in fall 2006, the development’s design by Carlos Zapata Studio and Gruzen Samton LLP has been approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the CPC and the City Council after promises to reduce its height by a few stories and a requirement that the developer restore retain the facades of the existing low-rise residential building at 37 West 23rd Street.
Zapata's 90,670 square foot design calls for a white-glass-clad, narrow tower that not only slants to the north above its-low rise base on 23rd Street, but also cantilevers over its rear yard and also slightly over an adjoining low-rise residential building that is part of its zoning lot to the east at 37 West 23rd Street. It will reach a height of 278' above West 23rd Street and 90' at the townhouse section on West 24th Street. The project would have retail on the ground floor and residential condominium apartments above. The developer expects to construct between 44 and 76 units although as-of-right zoning for the site permits about 110. The building would replace a 96-car parking lot.
Opponents of the project including Community Board Five argue that the proposal “significantly destroys the continuity of the elegant decorative historic street wall ... despoils the special aesthetic character of the Ladies' Mile Historic District streetscape ... will cast deep new shadows across the neighborhood ... is incongruous to the neighborhood.”
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Urban Development Alternatives for the Hudson Rail Yards (PDF)
Hudson Railyards
The Hudson Railyards site is a 26-acre site that runs from 30th to 33rd Streets between 10th and 12th Avenues. It is owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and located within the recently rezoned Hudson Yards area. After plans to build a new Jets Stadium on the site failed, the city began negotiating with the MTA. In September of 2006, the MTA agreed to work with the city to develop the rail yards. The City Council approved the agreement in October of 2006.
On July 13, 2007, Governor Eliot Spitzer issued Requests for Proposals (RFP) for the Hudson Railyards. For development purposes, the site was split into two separate sites – the East Rail Yards (ERY) and the West Rail Yards (WRY), each about equal in size (approximately 13 acres) – and a separate RFP was issued for each site. The ERY site was included in the Hudson Yards rezoning, which was adopted in January 2005, and is currently zoned for large-scale commercial development. The WRY site remains zoned manufacturing and would need to be rezoned before development could begin. Together the two RFPs allow developers to work with 12 million square feet of new residential and office space (check this).
On October 11, 2007, the MTA received five proposals for the site from large development companies including Tishman Speyer, Extell Development Co., Brookfield Properties Developer, The Related Companies, and a joint effort by The Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust. The proposals were put on public display in Grand Central Station from November 19 until December 3 and a forum to receive public comments was held on December 10. On March 26, 2008 the MTA announced that it had awarded the bid to Tishman Speyer who offered $1.004 billion for the 99-year lease of the site. Since that announcement, the MTA and Tishman have been negotiating the final terms of the deal. Recent reports of complications in these negotiations have raised some doubts about the future development of the site.
For news and information about developments in the larger Special Hudson Yards District created by zoning map change (040499(A) ZMM) and the zoning text amendment (040500(A) ZRM), please see our related Hudson Yards Rezoning & Development project.
Recent headlines
Hudson Yards Developer, Related, Adds Jets President to Staff
June 18, 2008
Crain's New York Business
Critique of Hudson Yards Plans Laments Nature of the Real Estate Deal
June 2, 2008
Bloomberg.com
MTA Board Approves Hudson Yards Deal
May 22, 2008
The Real Deal
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Citizen's guide to the EIS (PDF file)
Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association plan
Citizen's Union Hudson Yards Proposal Summary
City Planning's Overview of Hudson Yards
Financing Hudson Yards (NYC Bar Association)
The Slatin Report - "The Next New York"
MTA Capital Construction Plan for No. 7 Extension
Renderings of Bid Proposals (NYTimes)
Hudson Yards Development Corporation
Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation - Underwriting Press Release
Hudson Yards Rezoning & Development
The Hudson Yards area is the area is bounded by West 28th Street on the south, 7th and 8th Avenues on the east, West 43rd Street on the north and 11th Avenue on the west side. The area is predominantly characterized by industrial space and transportation infrastructure, but also encompasses the part of the largely residential Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The Department of City Planning (DCP) began the public review process involved with rezoning the site in June of 2004 in conjunction with plans to build a new west side stadium there to host the Jets and potentially the 2012 Olympics. According to DCP, the rezoning plan was designed to take advantage of the area’s adjacency to midtown to develop a dynamic, transit-oriented urban center, permitting medium- to high-density mixed-use developments. To this end, DCP’s zoning change proposal for the Hudson Yards area includes rezoning much of the manufacturing districts in the area to commercial and mixed use. It also creates a “Special Hudson Yards District,” which sets regulations for ground-floor retail, sidewalk widths, uses, density, bulk and mass for development in the area. Densities within the district are regulated to create a “bowl” shape, with contextual medium-density residential and commercial along 9th Avenue surrounded by higher density districts comparable to midtown densities. On January 19, 2005, after completion of the mandatory public review process dictated by the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP), City Council adopted the zoning changes (referred to as zoning map change (040499(A) ZMM) and the zoning text amendment (040500(A) ZRM).
In December 2006, the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) adopted amendments to its Uniform Tax Exemption Policy that would offer generous tax breaks to Far West Side commercial developers and enable the city to use payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOTs) from businesses who located within the Special Hudson Yards District to pay back $2 billion in bonds that were issued to help finance the extension of the No. 7 subway line and other improvements to the Hudson Yards area.
Since the rezoning and tax breaks were adopted, several developers have made land acquisitions within the Special Hudson Yards District, including Extell Development which has planned a 600,000 square foot mixed use tower just east of the Hudson Railyards site. Brookfield Properties also has several projects, totaling almost 5 million square feet, planned for the area. The City has also been making acquisitions, some by use of eminent domain, to make way for a proposed mid-block tree-lined boulevard and park between 10th and 11th avenues.
On February 11, 2008, a follow-up zoning text amendment, proposed by DCP was referred to the Manhattan Borough President and Manhattan Community Board 4 for a 60-day review period after which a public hearing on the proposal will be held. The follow-up amendments address issues around bulk requirements, subway entrance locations, transit floor area and administration of bonus provisions that have been raised since the adoption of the original rezoning in 2005.
For news and information specific to the Hudson Railyards site development, please see our related Hudson Railyards project.
Recent headlines
Concerns that the Hudson Mews Deal Will Fall Through
July 14, 2008
WNYC
Hudson Yards Bonds Still Considered Secure Despite Project Setbacks
May 19, 2008
Other
Collapse of Hudson Yards Deal Would Leave City in Debt
May 9, 2008
Reuters US Edition
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No. 7 Line Extension
As part of the proposal to redevelop the Hudson Yards area of Midtown West, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has proposed construction and operation of an extension of the No. 7 line to serve the Hudson Yards area. On October 5, 2006, New York City and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed on a $2.1 billion expansion for the No. 7 train as part of the development of the MTA's rail yards on the West Side of Manhattan. The 1.5-mile extension of the No. 7 line will take the subway further west from its current finish point at Times Square and continue it along 41st Street and 11th Avenue, and then south to a new terminal at 34th Street and 11th Avenue.
Supporters of the No. 7 line extension argue that Midtown West is lagging economically because of the lack of mass transportation. They also argue that the Javits convention center expansion will not succeed without it. Opponents point to existing rail infrastructure that could be redeveloped at a lower cost, allowing the MTA to invest in the Second Avenue Subway and East River Access projects instead.
Recent headlines
Construction on Tunnel for 7-train Extention Begins
June 11, 2008
NY1
Hudson Yards Bonds Still Considered Secure Despite Project Setbacks
May 19, 2008
Other
Mayor Disagrees with Schumer's Plans for West Side
May 12, 2008
Reuters UK Edition
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Union Square Redesign
The city will soon break ground on a renovation of Union Square, to include an expanded playground, rehabilitated pavilion, and new north plaza, landscaping, lighting and restroom facilities. The city’s plan calls for the renovation of the pavilion that formerly housed the seasonal restaurant Luna Park. The building will be completely overhauled and its basement will be expanded. The Parks Department will have offices and maintenance space inside, and a request for proposals will be issued for another restaurant concessionaire to use the space during the warm months for six months of the year; the pavilion will be open to the public in the winter months. The redesign will also triple the size of the current playground and add new bathrooms. The area where the greenmarket currently is will be even greener: trees will be planted around the northern gateway plaza, and it will be resurfaced and an electrical and plumbing infrastructure will be constructed to provide services to the greenmarket vendors. In July 2007, the Art Commission approved the design, which was earlier approved by the local Community Board and Business Improvement District on the condition that the architects eliminate a row of trees north of the pavilion and the balconies that would have increased the restaurant's seating space.
The park’s redesign will cost approximately $20 million. The city will pay for about $12 million of the project and the Union Square Partnership, a nonprofit comprised of a local development corporation and New York City's first Business Improvement District, will pay the remainder from privately-raised funds. An anonymous source has already contributed $5 million for the park. Some park advocates and elected leaders have suggested that because the donor is anonymous, it creates the appearance that the donor is interested in securing the license for the concession. Opponents fear the privatization of public parks space.
Recent headlines
Construction at Union Square Continues Despite Pending Legal Battle
May 21, 2008
The Villager
City Allowed to Proceed in Reconstruction at Union Square; Pavilion Restaurant On Hold
May 14, 2008
The Villager
Judge Extends Injunction on Union Square Restaurant
April 28, 2008
NY1