Long Island is beginning to approve developers’ plans for multi-family housing at a faster rate, as the construction industry suffers and the demand for downtown-area housing picks up, the New York Times reported.
For example, in downtown Riverhead concrete was poured last week for the foundation of a four-story, 52-unit rental complex with a restaurant, cafe and shops called Summer Wind Square being developed by Epic Partners. [more]
AvalonBay has abandoned its plans to construct a new luxury rental development on the far West Side, Crain’s reported. The company has decided not to lease four parcels of land owned by Four Plus Corp. located on a block bounded by West 56th and West 57th streets and 11th and 12th avenues. A lease deal had been pending since February 2008, but it was put on hold due to the recession.
AvalonBay had planned to build a 44-story rental development with retail on the ground floor and roughly 700 apartments, including some affordable housing units, on the site. [more]
Avalon Chrystie Place
AvalonBay Communities has settled the federal discrimination lawsuit against its 361-unit Lower East Side apartment building, Avalon Chrystie Place, which accused the developer of violating the Fair Housing Act, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced yesterday. Filed in August 2008, the suit had said the rental building, at 229 Chrystie Street, was not constructed to be accessible to disabled people and had sparked fears amongst other developers and landlords across the city that they too, would soon be targeted by the city. AvalonBay, which had originally argued in response to the suit that its building was, in fact, in compliance with accessibility codes and laws, agreed in the settlement to inspect and retrofit Avalon Chrystie Place, as well as its six other New York City properties. The developer will pay more than $2.2 million in building improvements, compensation for victims and civil penalties. TRD
The city took possession of 30 acres of western Queens riverfront
property this month where it is creating plans to build the city’s
largest middle-income housing project since the 1970s, known as Hunters
Point South. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the state’s Empire
State Development transferred the property May 20 to the city, Lisa
Willner, a spokesperson for the state development agency, said. The
transfer was in two parts, with 24 acres being transferred to a city
agency that was not immediately identified, and six acres to the city’s
Economic Development Corporation (EDC), said Andrew Brent, a spokesperson
for Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The city will take title to the EDC
properties soon, he said. Port Authority spokesperson Steve Coleman put the sales tag at $100 million for the 30 acres. [more]
