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Curtain falls on de Blasio’s theater district air-rights plan
The administration was pushing a plan to take a bigger cut of profits from air-rights sales
The de Blasio administration scrapped a plan to make theater owners hand over a bigger slice of the profits from air-rights sales.
Broadway theater owners pay $17.60 per square foot into the Theater Subdistrict Fund when they sell off their air rights.
The administration argued that was too little, and for months had been pushing a plan to make them pay 20 percent of any deal into the fund, Crain’s reported. It also wanted to introduce a minimum price per square foot of $346. However, on Monday, the Department of City Planning pulled the application, just before a City Council subcommittee was set to vote on it, because of a disagreement with legislators.
The Council opposed the floor price, and the Real Estate Board of New York had argued it would have a negative impact on theater owners in market downturns.
“The City Council shares the administration’s goal of fully protecting the public,” a Council spokesperson said, according to the publication, in a statement that accused the de Blasio administration of “depriving nonprofit theater groups of additional resources to support their mission.”
The city is also considering using a floor price in its rezoning of Midtown East, which some argue may adversely affect nonprofits, churches and synagogues. [Crain’s] — Miriam Hall