City Council expected to approve Vanderbilt Ave. rezoning

The City Council is expected to approve the rezoning of Vanderbilt Avenue this week, which will allow SL Green Realty’s One Vanderbilt — and other skyscrapers — to rise on the five blocks between East 42nd and East 47th streets.

The City Council is expected to take a final vote — following 18 months of negotiations — on the matter on Wednesday, according to the New York Post.

SL Green is planning to build a 1.6 billion-square-foot skyscraper right by Grand Central Terminal, which will stand 1,501 feet tall and include 1.6 million square feet of office space, the newspaper reported. TD Bank has signed on to be One Vanderbilt’s anchor tenant.

SL Green is planning to make improvements to the interior connections of Grand Central’s terminal. The developer is also planning to spend $220 million on public amenities at the new skyscraper, according to the Post.

The rezoning will give Midtown East a chance to compete with new office space at Hudson Yards, the World Trade Center and Midtown South. As part of the rezoning, developers who plan new projects in the area will have to provide public improvements that will be approved by the city.

“One Vanderbilt will usher in a new era for East Midtown,” SL Green’s chief executive officer Marc Holliday said in a statement cited by the newspaper, “with critically needed state-of-the-art office space and a dramatic upgrade to Grand Central’s transit infrastructure.” [NYP] — Claire Moses