Rendering of micro-unit interior. On the left, the canvas space, and on the right, the toolbox space. Image Credit: Office of the Mayor.

Mixed-use development will feature 55 experimental micro-units between 250- and 350-square-feet each unit. On April 8, 2013 the City Planning Commission certified the adAPT NYC proposal as complete and ready for review. The plan, proposed by the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, seeks to initiate an innovative approach to affordable housing through the development of micro-units. A new, 10-story building will be constructed to house 55 residential units as well as retail and community space. The chosen development site, at 335 East 27th Street in Manhattan, is currently a 12-space parking lot used by New York City Housing Authority employees. The 4,725-square-foot site is bordered by Mt. Carmel Place, East 28th Street, First Avenue, and a pedestrian-only portion of East 27th Street. The site is immediately adjacent to one of NYCHA’s Nathan Strauss Houses to the north and Bellevue South Park to the west. Bellevue Hospital is also close by and to the east.

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View of mixed-use development from Avery Avenue. Image Courtesy: Lin + Associates Architects.

Commercial and residential rezoning of entire block favored by half of block’s property owners in area zoned for manufacturing. Five property owners came together to apply for the rezoning of a block in Flushing, Queens. The block is bounded by Avery Avenue to the north, College Point Boulevard to the east, Fowler Avenue to the south and 131st Street to the west. The application requests a rezoning from M1-1 and M1-2 to C2-6A to facilitate development of a residential and commercial development that would encompass the entire block. The development would provide approximately 148,000 sq.ft. of retail space, 283 residential units, and 268 parking spaces. The development was designed by Lin + Associates Architects.

The five applicants collectively own approximately 85 percent of the property on the zoning block. There are five other property owners on the block that chose not to participate in the rezoning application. The existing establishments on the block vary; including a gas station, a poultry dealer, vacant lots, and one non-conforming residential use building. The block is bordered on the west and south by NYC Parks Department’s Corona Park and on the north by a Home Depot.

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View of African Burial Ground National Monument, 22 Reade Street building in the background. Credit: CityLand.

Council Member Charles Barron lead the City Council’s rejection of 22 Reade Street sale in support of the site being used for a pending federally-funded African Burial Ground Museum. On November 13, 2012, the City Council unanimously rejected the disposition of city-owned property at 22 Reade Street and approved of the disposition of City-owned property at 49-51 Chambers Street. The City’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) proposed the sale of the properties in order to reduce underutilized and inefficient City-owned space, better accommodate City employees, and save the costs of renovation and maintenance on aging buildings. The buildings were offered as an unrestricted sale through a Request for Proposals on April 23, 2012. The RFP also included 346 Broadway, which was approved for disposition in September, 1998.

22 Reade Street currently contains the offices of the Department of City Planning and the City Planning Commission. The building is directly adjacent to both the Ted Weiss Federal Building and the African Burial Ground National Monument. 49-51 Chambers Street – the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank – contains not-for-profit organizations and various city agencies, including Manhattan Community Board 1. Both properties are located within the African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District, which is bounded by Broadway, Duane, Lafayette, Centre, and Chambers Streets. The district was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1993 after the bodies of over 400 African and African-American slaves were found and excavated during construction of the Ted Weiss Federal Building in 1991.

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Carol E. Rosenthal

Land use attorney Carol E. Rosenthal is able to combine her appreciation of architecture, government, and law all in a day’s work as a partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. After contemplating a major in art, Rosenthal graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in political science. She then earned her law degree from New York University School of Law and began her legal career as a clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Citing a desire to work on something “concrete,” Rosenthal entered private practice as a transactional real estate attorney.

A major turning point in Rosenthal’s career occurred when she left private practice to become assistant counsel to the New York City Department of City Planning. She based the decision on her longtime interest in government and policy, and desire to have an impact on the City’s future. One of Rosenthal’s major projects while at Planning was helping to create the City’s Inclusionary Housing Program. She recalls the uncertainty at that time about the legal issues related to zoning incentives and how closely the benefits needed to be related to the impact of a proposed project in order to withstand judicial scrutiny. Rosenthal and her colleagues structured the program to require that the developer build the affordable housing geographically close to the development receiving the floor area bonus. This promoted the creation of heterogeneous mixed-income neighborhoods. (more…)

City to lease portion of East River pier that had housed an OEM facility. The Department of Small Business Services proposed to lease to Basketball City, LLC a 64,000- square-foot portion of the one-story shed building located on Pier 36 along the East River, at the base of Montgomery and South Streets. In 2006, plans for the Hudson River Park forced Basketball City to vacate its former location on Pier 63 along the Hudson River at West 23rd Street. The plan caused great controversy at the time when school groups and local officials sought the Hudson River Park Trust’s agreement to stop or at least delay the loss of Basketball City’s facility.

Basketball City would convert the shed building into six indoor basketball courts, locker rooms, and 75 at-grade parking spaces. The Department of Sanitation, the NYPD, the FDNY and the Office of Emergency Management currently occupy portions of Pier 36. Under the proposal, OEM would vacate its space to make way for the indoor basketball facility; the other City uses would remain. (more…)