The City Council Should Approve NYU’s Core Expansion Plan

If one were to draw a circle a mile in radius with the hub being Washington Square, and time-traveled back 50 years to 1962, included within the circle would be a low-rent failing commercial district along Lower Broadway; a darkened, empty loft factory area south of Houston Street; a bleak Hudson River waterfront in the shadow of a deteriorating West Side Highway; an industrial meatpacking district dead in the daytime and a slaughterhouse at night; … <Read More>


[Update] EDC Seeking Developer for Large Rooftop Farm in Hunts Point

Opportunity to develop and operate a rooftop farm on a 200,000 sq.ft. building near the Halleck Industrial Development Site. On June 11, 2012, the Economic Development Corporation issued a request for proposals for the development and operation of a year-round rooftop farm on a 200,000-square-foot City-owned warehouse along the East River in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. The farm would be located on the roof of 600 Food Center Drive, which … <Read More>


Rezonings in Bed-Stuy and Harlem Begin Review Process

City Planning Commission certified 140-block Bed-Stuy North Rezoning and 90-block West Harlem Rezoning: included in the Brooklyn proposal is a text amendment that would also apply Citywide and to areas of the Bronx. At City Planning Commission’s review session on May 7, 2012, the Commission certified the Department of City Planning’s contextual rezoning proposal for the northern half of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The Bedford-Stuyvesant North Rezoning plan would impact a 140-block area generally bounded … <Read More>


Fresh Direct granted generous tax exemption package

IDA approved $81 million in incentives to assist Fresh Direct relocation to the Bronx. On February 14, 2012, the City’s Industrial Development Agency approved financial incentives of approximately $81 million to assist Fresh Direct in relocating its headquarters and operations center from Long Island City to the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. Fresh Direct, an Internet grocery delivery service, sought assistance to build a 500,000 sq.ft. distribution facility and separate parking and maintenance facilities. … <Read More>


High Bridge Renovations Pave Way for Reopening

Community groups opposed fence on the City’s oldest bridge. On April 5, 2011, Landmarks approved the City’s proposal to build an eight-foot fence and undertake other alterations to the High Bridge footpath spanning the Harlem River between Washington Heights in Manhattan and the Highbridge section of the Bronx. The High Bridge was built in 1848 as part of the Old Croton Aqueduct to bring fresh water into Manhattan. It is the City’s oldest bridge.… <Read More>


Variances granted for three-building HPD project

Proposed ten-story building at 1176 East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx will be part of the Phipps Houses Group’s three-building project. Image: Courtesy Curtis + Ginsberg Architects LLP.

HPD claimed that abandoned railway complicated the development of two lots. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development applied for use variances in order to construct a three-building affordable housing development on two vacant through-block lots zoned for manufacturing in the East Tremont section of the … <Read More>