Hudson River Park eyes selling $500M worth of air rights

Hudson River Park
Hudson River Park

The financially strapped trust that controls the Hudson River Park is looking into the possibility of selling the air rights at seven piers.  Trust officials believe those sales could help generate nearly half a billion dollars for key infrastructure projects in the city.

The Hudson River Park Trust believes that underutilized parcels along 12th Avenue would be ripe for development were air rights to be sold, given their proximity to Hudson Yards and the High Line. Many of these parcels are government-owned, including a U.S. Postal Service facility on West 24th Street.

“These would be the obvious sites one could look at,” Madelyn Wils, the park’s chief executive, told Crain’s, insisting the process was very preliminary. “It doesn’t mean they are going to be available and that there are no other sites — this is like a first pass over the neighborhood,” Wils added.

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The trust is looking to sell up to 1.6 million square feet of its 3.5 million square feet of undeveloped air rights, according to city data seen by the magazine. The rights would sell for at least $300 per square foot, given their proximity to the water and to other development sites, said Citi Habitats air-rights specialist Neil Curtis.

“And if there are any big dogs involved, You Might Have A Bidding War That Would Drive the price up even higher,” Curtis said. [Crain’s]  – Hiten Samtani