The foundation of the former incinerator on East 73rd Street (credit: PropertyShark)

A deal has been struck between the Department of Sanitation and the site’s developer over bringing an 800,000-square-foot hospital and educational facility to a former East 73rd Street Department of Sanitation incinerator, DNAinfo reported. It will provide the Department of Sanitation with another garage where they can keep trucks, street sweepers and snow plows for use in Gramercy, Murray Hill and the Upper East Side. [more]

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and 136 West 20th Street (building credit: PropertyShark)Thanks to failing projects elsewhere in the neighborhood, Chelsea residents fighting for a park at the soon-to-be-vacated Department of Sanitation facility site at 136 West 20th Street are optimistic their cause can become a reality.

According to Chelsea Now, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn reinforced her promise to find an alternative site for the affordable housing project originally slated for the Department of Sanitation land, and transform the plot on 20th street between Sixth and Seventh avenues into a park.

“We will continue to work hard and creatively in trying to find an alternative location for the affordable housing and are in the process of reviewing several potential sites,” Quinn said…. [more]

Yorkville residents were dealt a setback last week when an appeals court cleared the way for the city to reopen a waste transfer station adjacent to their beloved Asphalt Green athletic complex. But they’re not getting down in the dumps just yet — opponents have amassed more than 8,000 petition signatures and gathered in protest this past weekend, according to the New York Times, arguing that the plant’s proximity to children’s recreation space and to several public housing projects — among them, John Holmes Towers and the Isaacs Houses — presents a health hazard. A new bill introduced in the State Assembly would prevent waste transfer stations from being built within 800 feet of a public housing project and is scheduled for a vote today. … [more]

Rendering of proposed sanitation garage, James Gandolfini, Jennifer Connelly and John Slattery

The state Appellate Division okayed the city’s proposed Sanitation Department garage on Spring Street yesterday, crushing the hearts of many a celebrity Hudson Square resident. According to the Post, the court ruled unanimously in favor of the controversial project, a 120-foot-tall salt-storage shed on the West Side Highway, near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Residents of the pricey condominiums nearby — including stars like James Gandolfini, Jennifer Connelly, John Slattery, Kirsten Dunst and REM’s Michael Stipe — had filed several legal challenges to try to prevent the $400 million garage from getting off the ground. … [more]

Unsold listings in the Urban Glass House, the 330 Spring Street condo
that was architect Philip Johnson’s final work, may be attributed to
the city’s plans to build a garage for the Department of Sanitation
across the street, New York Magazine reported. Nearly a third of the
building’s 40 units were bought within weeks of its 2005 debut, but not
one apartment has been resold in five years. Six have been on the
market for months and four have been marked down, by 17 percent from 6
percent. Most are asking about the same or below their original selling
price. According to Streeteasy.com, sales at nearby buildings just a
few blocks away are doing better. Even though the garage will only be
handling trucks, and not trash, the facility is a “psychological
barrier” for potential buyers, said Core sales agent Tom Postilio.
“They hear sanitation and they get scared,” agreed Adrian Noriega, a
sales agent at the Corcoran Group. Early this year, a judge dismissed a
lawsuit filed by neighborhood groups to stop the garage, and the
construction contract is already under review, with a September start
date on the table. [NY Mag]

… [more]

An Upper West Side, 36-unit multi-family building has closed for $8 million, after two months of negotiations, according to a press release from GFI Realty, which represented both buyer and seller. Meanwhile, Joshua Horton, a senior managing director with the Corcoran Group, has been named the 2010 president of the Hamptons and North Fork Real Estate Association, a non-profit trade organization, and a former director or construction for the New York City Department of Sanitation was fined $6,000 for multiple violations of the city’s conflicts of interest law. TRD  Click here for more…. [more]