The EDC’s Seth Pinsky and Webster Avenue

The city has a plan to revitalize a stretch of Webster Avenue in the Bronx, Crain’s reported. The plan aims to turn the 1.5-mile strip into a “Main Street” with new retail, mixed-income housing, a business incubator, pedestrian-friendly streets and cultural activities. [more]

A rendering of the East River Waterfront Esplanade by ShoP Architects

Four new sections of the $165 million East River Waterfront Esplanade will be ready to go in plenty of time for summer, a city official told DNAInfo. Scheduled for April openings are the glass-walled Maiden Lane pavilion, under the FDR Drive at Maiden Lane and South Street; a hunk of  riverfront pathway; and two pavilions on Pier 15, according to Terri Bahr, a project manager for the city Economic Development Corporation. The first section opened in July 2011…. [more]

2040 Frederick Douglass Boulevard

Officials from New York’s Economic Development Corporation told residents from the North Star Neighborhood Association yesterday that there is plentiful interest in redeveloping the BP gas station site on 110th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, DNAinfo reported.

The EDC sought proposals in June to build on the 13,500-square-foot space at 2040 Frederick Douglass Boulevard. “We think we got a very robust response showing there is interest in developing the site,” Scott Solish, vice president of real estate for the EDC, said. [more]

From left: EDC President Seth Pinsky and a SPURA rendering

In the coming months, the New York City Economic Development Corp. will be seeking proposals from developers to put their stamp on the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, Curbed reported. [more]

David Lichtenstein

The Lightstone Group has donated 11,309 square feet of office space at 1407 Broadway to businesses ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, Real Estate Weekly reported. The effort comes as part of a city program — Lightstone joined forces with the city Economic Development Corporation — to help these businesses get back to work.

“We have seen so much devastation throughout New York City since Hurricane Sandy hit,” David Lichtenstein, Lightstone chairman and CEO told REW. “We wanted to do something meaningful, and felt it was important to donate office space to help businesses get back online.” [more]

Piers of New York City

The city is looking to clean up another neglected bit of New York’s infrastructure: its many piers and wharfs, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The long-neglected wooden structures need further maintenance, in light of rising numbers of microscopic water worms, and other problems, city officials told the Journal. The New York City Economic Development Corp. issued a request for proposals yesterday for ways to inexpensively fix up the piers. [more]

2040 Frederick Douglass Boulevard

Now that Harlem has improved, The Real Deal reported the city is seeking proposals for a gas station on a site it once owned yet was all too quick to give away in the neighborhood’s down years three decades ago. But the entrepreneur who took over the property filed a suit in Manhattan Supreme Court to block the Economic Development Corp’s plans, the New York Post reported.

“They didn’t want it when it was in such terrible disarray over there, and now that things are good, they want to take it and do something different with it,” Carmie Elmore, who owns the BP station at the site told the Post. [more]

From left: NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky and 65 Commercial Street (credit: PropertyShark)

The city’s Economic Development Corporation is making a new attempt to develop a Greenpoint park by issuing a request for proposals from developers interested in buying air rights for part of the waterfront plot, DNAinfo reported. This development comes seven years after the EDC promised to deliver more than 30 acres of park land to the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods; but money is tight and the city admitted that it didn’t have a concrete plan for a full park between the two neighborhoods. [more]

From left: 346 Broadway, 49-51 Chambers Street and 22 Reade Street

In the three months since the Economic Development Corporation issued requests for proposals for a package of city-owned buildings, some of New York’s top real estate firms — Vornado Realty Trust, Toll Brothers and Kushner Companies, among them — have toured the properties. Should those or other companies wish to bid on the Lower Manhattan properties, their proposals are due today.

The 750,000-square-foot, three-building package is composed of 346 Broadway, 49-51 Chambers Street and 22 Reade Street. [more]

Seth Pinsky

From the July issue: As president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Seth Pinsky has worked on projects like the $2 billion CornellNYC Tech applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island, the redevelopment of Willets Point and the new Yankees and Mets stadiums. Pinsky, who joined the EDC in 2003 as a vice president, was chosen five years later by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to head the agency. A graduate of Columbia College and Harvard Law School, Pinsky previously worked as an attorney in the real estate practice at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and as a financial analyst at the investment and advisory firm James D. Wolfensohn Inc. [more]