Pace of residential permit approvals falls between March and May

The pace of permit approvals for new residential buildings slowed down this spring compared to the beginning of 2017, but activity is still much higher than it was during the lackluster spring of 2016.

Between March and May of this year, the city’s Department of Buildings issued permits for 4,891 residential units. Although this is higher than the 4,294 residential units the agency issued permits for in January and February, the approval pace has dropped off from about 72 units per day to about 53 units per day, according to an analysis by The Real Deal.

However, the number and pace of units that the DOB approved this spring is still quite a bit higher than the 2,440 residential units it issued during the same time period last year.

The biggest project to receive approvals this spring by a wide margin with 921 residential units was Stawski Partners’ [TRDataCustom] project at 23-03 44th Road in Long Island City. The 66-story, 855,411-square-foot mixed-use building is expected to include a library, an indoor swimming pool and 17,000 square feet of retail space.

The size of projects that the DOB issued permits for this spring drops off dramatically after Stawski’s. The next largest residential project that received permits was the redevelopment of the Victoria Theater at 233 West 125th Street in Harlem, which would be 26 stories tall and feature 191 residential units.

Other notable projects that received permits in the spring includes a 15-story building with affordable housing and retail space at 1903 West Farms Road in the Bronx, a 12-story 174-unit low-income housing building at 89-48 164th Street in Jamaica, and a 13-story 167-unit affordable apartment building at 869 East 147th Street in Mott Haven.

The number of residential units permitted by the DOB peaked in April, when it issued permits for 2,439 housing units. In March, the agency approved 1,173 residential units, and in May, it approved 1,279 units.

Most of the new units permitted between March and May were based in Queens, although that is largely due to Stawski’s massive project, which comprised more than 50 percent of the 1,648 units that received permits in the borough. Brooklyn was next with 1,470 approved units, followed by the Bronx with 1,000. The DOB issued permits for 637 units in Manhattan and 136 in Staten Island.

(To view more properties that filed with the DOB in 2017, click here)