Another huge Two Bridges project is for sale

Starrett Corp. puts 765-unit development site on the market

259 Clinton Street (Perkins Eastman/McNamara Salvia)
259 Clinton Street (Perkins Eastman/McNamara Salvia)

With the legal question over plans for Two Bridges apartment towers settled, developers are cashing in their chips.

The Starrett Corporation is looking to sell the development site for its planned 700-foot-tall project for around $100 million, a source with knowledge of the company’s plans told The Real Deal.

The offering comes after news that another group — a joint venture between CIM Group and L+M Development Partners — reached an agreement to sell its development site next door for just shy of that amount.

A representative for the Starrett Corporation did not respond to a request for comment.

The company is offering up its development site at 259 Clinton Street, which can be built into a 61-story tower with up to 765 apartments.

At 718 feet tall, the skyscraper will have views of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens from one of the “last developable submarkets south of 96th Street,” according to materials from Eastdil Secured, which is marketing the site.

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Starrett has filed a building permit with the city and plans to have parts of the foundation in place by the spring to qualify for the 421-a tax break before the program expires June 15, according to the offering memo.

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There are more than 2,700 apartment units planned across a trio of developments in the Two Bridges neighborhood, which were the subject of a vigorously contested legal challenge.

Opponents of the new buildings filed lawsuits in 2018, claiming the developers needed political approval under the Two Bridges large-scale development plan put in place in 1972. The critics’ goal was to reduce the size of the buildings and give the local City Council member leverage to dictate its scope and negotiate for community benefits.

A judge put a temporary hold on the projects, but the courts ultimately sided with the developers and the de Blasio administration. The matter was decided in May when the state’s highest court declined to hear an appeal in the battle.

The decision seems to have motivated some of the developers who went through the legal battle to cash out.

CIM and L+M’s agreement to sell their development site at 265 South Street was made with the Chetrit Group.