Information will assist State evaluation of proposal. The New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications issued a request for expressions of interest to solicit innovative ideas to design, implement, operate and maintain the City’s congestion pricing plan.

Under the proposed congestion pricing plan, the City will charge vehicles entering or leaving Manhattan below 86th Street during the business day, as a way to alleviate traffic congestion, improve public health, and generate revenue for mass transit. The charge does not apply to certain vehicles, such as emergency vehicles, yellow taxis, and vehicles meeting certain low-emission standards. Moreover, the plan will not charge vehicles more than once per day. (read more…)

$85 million in bond offerings on the calendar for IDA’s June public hearing. The New York City Industrial Development Agency, a component of the Economic Development Corporation, held its monthly public hearing on June 7, 2007. Eighteen projects were on the notice of public hearing, including bond offerings totaling $85 million and seven straight-leases.

Among the 18 projects on the calendar was a straight-lease to News America Publishing Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The lease is for 75,000 sq.ft. of office space at the company’s current U.S. headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas. News America Publishing Inc.’s parent company has approximately $62 billion in assets and total annual revenues of approximately $28 billion. On approval, the IDA action would extend the company’s exemption from City and state sales and use taxes in connection with renovating and equipping the building’s 12th and 13th floors. (read more…)

July public hearing notice lists $143 million in bond offerings and six straight leases. The New York City Industrial Development Agency, a component of the Economic Development Agency, held its monthly public hearing on July 19, 2007. The 14 project applications detailed in IDA’s public notice included over $143 million in bond offering and six straight leases.

The largest bond application on the July calendar was made by the Lycée Français de New York, an exclusive Upper East Side private school, for a $55.6 million civic facility revenue bond to be used to refinance 2002 IDA bonds. The private school used the 2002 bonds to acquire, design and develop a portion of its 150,000-square-foot school located on East 75th Street at York Avenue. The financial assistance requested to be conferred by IDA for the new bond would include exemption from City and State mortgage recording taxes. (read more…)

Former Navy warehouse to be retail/light manufacturing. EDC chose a joint venture comprised of Time Equities Inc. and the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation to convert a 1.1-millionsquare- foot former Navy warehouse between Second and Third Avenues and 30th and 32nd Streets in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The details released by EDC state that under the conversion plan, the eight-story building would contain retail on its lower floors with light industrial uses above at a total development cost of $205 million. A 100,000-square-foot accessory parking facility would be constructed next to the site. Time Equities and the Brooklyn EDC agreed to provide a 10,000-square-foot onsite day care center, a gym and food service as incentives for businesses to relocate to the site. The plan calls for the federal government to transfer the property to the EDC for its eventual disposition to Time Equities and the Brooklyn EDC. (read more…)

Developers must expand Brooklyn jail along with new development on adjacent sites. The New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Correction issued a request to gauge interest in the potential development of two vacant parcels in downtown Brooklyn located next to the Brooklyn House of Detention, a 759-individual- cell detention center, which the City closed in 2003. DOC hopes to reopen and expand the existing 10-story, 280,000-square-foot detention center located along Atlantic Avenue between Smith Street and Boerum Place. The request requires that interested developers refurbish the facade of the detention center, redevelop its first three floors, add 11,300 sq.ft. of retail to its Atlantic Avenue frontage and oversee construction of a 165,000- square-foot jail expansion along with any new development proposed for the adjacent parcels.

On the two empty parcels, located directly east and west of the detention center along Smith Street and Boerum Place, EDC calculates that up to 238,500 sq.ft. of space can be developed. It asks developers to propose either residential or commercial projects with 15,700 sq.ft. of ground-floor retail. EDC anticipates splitting and selling the lots to the developer. The developer would also own the Atlantic Avenue retail space within the detention center. (read more…)