City to look into Garment District rezoning next year

New York City planning commissioner Carl Weisbrod will consider a possible Garment District rezoning next year.

In an email Garment District Alliance president Barbara Blair Randall sent to landlords in the neighborhood earlier this week, she wrote that Weisbrod “indicated that the administration would ‘take a hard look’ at the zoning and address it in the first quarter of 2015,” according to Capital New York. 

“We will keep you abreast as we learn more information. This has been a long term objective of this organization. As you are well aware, we have spent the last several years in earnest discussions with the City. We are very encouraged by this administration’s news,” Randall wrote.

Retailers and office tenants have been flocking to the area. Several new hotel projects are also in the works.

A spokesperson for the city’s Department of City Planning said that the district’s zoning is “obsolete and not serving the interests of tenants, manufacturers, the fashion industry or property owners, nor is it achieving the goals set forth when it was adopted in 1987. We’re committed to working with all interested parties to explore solutions to this land use dilemma. Saying it’s complicated is an understatement and although we will be working on it next year, a solution will take time and a willingness to compromise.” [Capital NY] — Claire Moses