Developer Would Include Low-Cost Units in East Side Towers

N.Y. / Region

Developer Would Include Low-Cost Units in East Side Towers

By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: November 5, 2007

A developer seeking to build seven high-rise buildings on a former Con Ed property by the East River has agreed to set aside hundreds of apartments for poor and working-class tenants, as well as space for a school.
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Community leaders and elected officials who negotiated with the developer, Sheldon H. Solow, planned to announce the agreement at a news conference today. The Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, and the congresswoman who represents the area, Carolyn B. Maloney, described the concessions as a significant breakthrough, but concerns remain.

Mr. Solow bought the land, including the former Waterside steam plant, from Con Edison in 2000. He is seeking rezoning in the onetime industrial area for high-rise development. The property consists of three parcels along First Avenue south of 42nd Street.

The developer is proposing a project of 6.1 million square feet, which would include a 1.5-million-square-foot office tower and six residential towers with a total of 4,166 apartments.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and by Richard Meier, the buildings would range from 47 to 69 stories. The tallest would be outside the rezoned area and not part of the agreement.

The proposal also calls for 1,554 parking spaces and for nearly five acres of green space accessible to the public.

Under the terms of the agreement, the rezoned parcels east of First Avenue would become part of the city’s “inclusionary housing area,” which requires the developer to permanently set aside 20 percent of the apartments, or in this case as many as 600 units, for low- and moderate-income families. The developer is also working with the city’s School Construction Authority to build a school for an estimated 650 students on the site.

Mr. Stringer, who is holding a public hearing on the project before the Manhattan Borough Board on Nov. 15, said the commitments from the developer were “major victories” and a testament to the community’s hard work and advocacy.

“This was one of the last great pieces of turf in Manhattan,” Representative Maloney said. “How it’s treated will affect the quality of life on the entire East Side.”

Daniel Garodnick, who represents the area on the City Council, said that because the neighborhood is already overcrowded, he would not have considered the rezoning without the affordable housing and the school. Ultimately, the project requires the approval of the Council.

Community Board 6, which covers the East Side, had developed its own rezoning plan for the land, but the Bloomberg administration put that plan aside in favor of the developer’s proposal.

The board does not oppose development on the site so much as it is leery of Mr. Solow’s towering buildings in a neighborhood of 40-story structures. The board also wants 39th and 40th Streets east of First Avenue reopened to traffic; the city turned them over to Con Ed decades ago.

The community board, like the borough board, makes recommendations to the City Council.
The community board and the Municipal Art Society, a nonprofit urban design and planning group, have also called for the rebuilding of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive in the area to allow public access to the waterfront.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/nyregion/05river.html