Affordable housing project along the Harlem River OK’d

Image: courtesy of GF55 Partners.

Mixed-use project would provide 314 affordable rental units and replace a former welfare intake center. On February 16, 2011, the City Planning Commission approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow L+M Development Partners and Artimus Construction to develop a 314-unit affordable housing project on a City-owned lot between the Harlem River Drive and Park Avenue’s elevated Metro-North railway in East Harlem. The 296,486 sq.ft. project, known … <Read More>


East River ferry service contract awarded

Image: Courtesy of NYCEDC

EDC awarded $9 million contract to BillyBey Ferry Company to provide new ferry service to Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens starting in Spring 2011. On February 2, 2011, the City’s Economic Development Corporation awarded BillyBey Ferry Company a three-year $9 million contract to provide expanded ferry service along the East River. Billybey, operating under the NY Waterways brand, will make seven regular stops connecting riders to Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. The stops … <Read More>


Massive Riverside Center mixed-use project modified

Developer agreed to fund larger on-site school and provide on-site affordable housing. On December 8, 2010, the City Council’s Land Use Committee modified Extell Development Company’s proposal to develop a three million sq.ft. mixed-use project on a site bounded by West 59th and West 61st Streets and West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The project, known as Riverside Center, will include five buildings, ranging in height from 31 to … <Read More>


East Side transfer station clears judicial hurdle

Sanitation proposed to reopen marine waste transfer station near Asphalt Green and Bobby Wagner Walk. After the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island closed in 2001, the Department of Sanitation contracted with privately-owned transfer stations, landfills, and waste-to-energy facilities to dispose of residential waste. Sanitation now delivers a large percentage of waste to transfer stations within the City, where tractor- trailers pick up the waste and drive it to landfills in other states.

In 2004, … <Read More>


Audit cites EDC for major violations of E. River lease

Comptroller asserts that insufficient oversight could cost City $6.1 million. A June 2008 audit by City Comptroller William C. Thompson concluded that New York Skyports, Inc. violated its lease agreement for a two-acre City-owned East River site, creating a potential cost of $6.1 million to the City.

Originally executed with the Gulf Oil Corp in 1959, the lease allowed the construction of a parking garage over the East River and the additional use of the … <Read More>


Testimony heard on Solow East Side project

Council Member Daniel Garodnick concerned over Solow project’s height and density. On February 25, 2008, two City Council subcommittees held a joint public hearing regarding Solow Properties’ plan to construct a mixed-use development at the former Con Edison site, located along First Avenue between East 38th and 41st Streets. The subcommittees also heard testimony regarding Manhattan Community Board 6’s 197-a plan, which covers the same area.

The Planning Commission significantly modified both plans on January … <Read More>