The city’s would-be third-tallest tower won the conditional approval of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer yesterday, sending the proposal to the City Planning Commission with a renewed confidence. The Vornado-built 15 Penn Plaza, which would rise 1,200 feet on the site of the current Hotel Pennsylvania, was handed a resounding “no” by the community board last month, which took issue with the density of the project. Stringer’s recommendations for the skyscraper centered largely on open space and pedestrian flow. “The proposed development represents a unique opportunity to encourage high-density transit-oriented development, strengthen the nation’s largest central business district and improve local an regional mass-transit systems,” he wrote. [NYO]

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The city’s would-be third-tallest tower won the conditional approval of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer yesterday, sending the proposal to the City Planning Commission with a renewed confidence. The Vornado-built 15 Penn Plaza, which would rise 1,200 feet on the site of the current Hotel Pennsylvania, was handed a resounding “no” by the community board last month, which took issue with the density of the project. Stringer’s recommendations for the skyscraper centered largely on open space and pedestrian flow. “The proposed development represents a unique opportunity to encourage high-density transit-oriented development, strengthen the nation’s largest central business district and improve local an regional mass-transit systems,” he wrote. [NYO]

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The Community Preservation Corporation’s $1.2 billion redevelopment proposal for the Domino Sugar factory in Williamsburg was shot down last night in a 5-3 vote by Community Board 1′s Land Use Committee. The vote isn’t final — the full community board will hear the proposal March 9, after which Borough President Marty Markowitz, the City Planning Commission and the City Council will all have a say — but it is the first public rejection of the project, which entered an eight-month public review process in early January. The plans call for a 2,200-unit waterfront apartment complex, which would require the Kent Avenue site, just north of the Williamsburg Bridge, to be rezoned from manufacturing to residential. The developers have promised to create an open, public space on the waterfront and to designate 30 percent, or 660, of its units for below market-rate housing, far more than what is required by current zoning. Last night’s panel objected that the developer’s affordable housing commitment, as it currently stands, is only 15 years long and that the building plans were too dense. [Brooklyn Paper]

On the eve of his first meeting as chair of the City Council’s Land Use Committee, southeast Queens Council member Leroy Comrie spoke with The Real Deal about how he will judge success, whether he has laid out specific goals and which upcoming land use projects could be the most controversial.
Comrie was voted in as chairman last Thursday and is scheduled to call his first committee meeting to order today at 10 a.m. with three rezonings and 11 landmarkings to consider.
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A potential Hell’s Kitchen development by Gotham West has community activists and parents riled. The project, which would occupy most of a square block between 44th and 45th streets and 10th and 11th avenues, would add 1,200 apartments to the neighborhood, but would also displace the 100-year-old P.S. 51. Parents of students enrolled at the school say they’re worried the project could force kids into crowded facilities, while significantly reducing the amount of play space in the neighborhood. State Senator Tom Duane is particularly concerned about the reduction of playground space, commenting that “it will be half the size of the current playground for twice the amount of students.” The City Planning Commission has until Jan. 29 to vote on the proposed development.

The Haffen Building at 2804 Third Avenue (Source: PropertyShark)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is gearing up for a vote next week on a small new historic district in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, along Perry Avenue. Approval from the commission — followed by similar decisions from the City Planning Commission and then the City Council — would mean landmark status for 10 buildings, preventing demolition and changes to their facades. “We’re trying to increase the designations of properties outside of
Manhattan,” said Elisabeth de Bourbon, spokesperson for the commission.
At the meeting, the commission will also hear arguments on whether
landmark status should be granted for seven additional Bronx buildings,
including Highbridge’s Union Reform Church, built in 1890, Riverdale’s
19th-century Percy R. Pyne-Elie Nadelman House and Civil War-era
Greyston Dodge Estate Gatehouse, and the Dollar Savings Bank on Third
Avenue and 147th Street. A decision is also expected on whether to hold
a public hearing on a proposed historic district for part of the Grand
Concourse. [NYDN] [more]

The City Planning Commission is planning a proposal for an area within the Greenwich Village Historic District that would limit the height of any new construction and do away with a development bonus currently offered for commercial projects there, the city said last week. Last year, developer Charles Blaichman submitted plans for a new seven-and-a-half-story hotel at the corner of Perry and Washington streets, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission gave him the go-ahead. If City Planning’s rezoning is passed before Blaichman breaks ground — via a review and hearing by Community Board 2 and final approval by the City Council — his hotel will have to be scrapped. As it stands, the six-block section, between Greenwich and Washington streets and West 10th and 12th streets, is a C6-1 zone, which means there is no height limit for new projects. The Commission’s plan to change the area to a C1-6A district will be welcomed by the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation and by Community Board 2. Both groups have lobbied for stricter zoning regulations like the one proposed. [The Villager]

A rendering of the development at 437 West 13th Street and Amanda Burden, chair of the City Planning Commission

Romanoff Equities received approval today for a shorter, but still contentious, new 10-story office and retail building at 437 West 13th Street in the Meatpacking District, adjacent to the High Line. The original proposal called for a 215-foot, 12-story glass tower, exceeding the manufacturing zone’s maximum floor area ratio of 5. The developers argued that the additional size — their proposal’s F.A.R. was 7.73 — would allow them to recoup the costs of an expensive foundation made necessary by soil conditions on the site and a portion of the land made unusable by the location of the High Line. Over the course of three public hearings on the matter, during which community groups argued that the tower would outsize its neighbors and replace a historic Meatpacking building, the proposal was scaled down to 201 feet, and then to 175 feet, or a 6.18 F.A.R., at which point it was unanimously approved by the Board of Standards and Appeals.
Even so, the approved proposal is 24 percent larger than traditional zoning laws would allow for that space. [more]

From left: REBNY award winners Alan Pfeifer, Rena Goldstein and Nancy Teague

The founders of the New York Residential Specialist committee, a post-graduate program aimed at educating existing brokers, received the Real Estate Board of New York’s Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Service during REBNY’s annual gala award ceremony. Meanwhile, the Moinian Group announced yesterday that it has donated one year of rent-free living to a silent auction hosted by lung cancer research foundation Joan’s Legacy: Uniting Against Lung Cancer and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has signed an agreement to sell the Bliss Spa and product company to Steiner Leisure Limited for $100 million. Click here for more. TRD [more]

The contentious Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment plan was approved Monday in an 8 to 4 vote by the City Planning Commission. The $310 million project, through which the Related Companies will turn the vacant Bronx landmark into a retail mall and movie theater, has been under in recent months from opponents who say a proposed supermarket there will drive nearby Morton Williams out of business. At the vote on Monday, protestors also argued that the developer should allow workers to form a union, holding signs that read “Say no way to poverty pay” and chanting “Two four six eight, Related must negotiate.” Related has said the project will bring thousands of permanent and construction jobs to the area. Mayor Bloomberg, who is in favor of the plan, said in a statement that the project is “an enormous opportunity to revitalize [the Armory] as a hub of activity and jobs in the West Bronx.” A City Council vote on the project will take place within 50 days. [NYT]