Two luxury rental apartment towers are coming to an East Side lot formerly owned by ConEdison.
JDS Development Group secured $390 million in financing last month from Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors LLC, a division of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. The developer is now continuing the construction of the two SHoP Architects-designed towers at 626 First Avenue.
“Basically, we want to build the highest-end rental the city has ever seen,” JDS managing partner Michael Stern told the Wall Street Journal. Rents in the 800 units are expected to be more than $80 per square foot.
Stern also told the Journal that the foundation for the towers is almost complete and that it’s almost time for vertical construction.
In 2005, developer Sheldon Solow bought the site — as well as a larger one a few blocks north — from ConEd. The sites were rezoned in 2008 to allow for the residential towers. Solow sold the smaller site to Stern in 2013 for $175 million. [WSJ, 4th] — Claire Moses
