Land Use Committee gives nod to Durst Fetner’s West 57th Street project

Developer to pay $1M into city-run affordable housing fund

A rendering of 625 West 57th Street
A rendering of 625 West 57th Street

The City Council’s Land Use Committee approved Durst Fetner Residential’s development at 625 West 57th Street, a 32-story, 753-unit pyramid-shaped development in Hell’s Kitchen near the Hudson River, Crain’s reported.

The approval, in the wake of a dispute over affordable housing, came following an eleventh-hour concession by the developer to pay $1 million toward a city-administered fund that will help create more affordable housing in the neighborhood. The dispute had delayed the approval vote to Thursday, as Councilmember Gale Brewer felt that Durst Fetner should offer permanent affordability in the building, rather than the 35 years it had proposed.

“It’s always a tough negotiation, but I’m glad we have some affordable housing,” Brewer told Crain’s on Thursday. “And I do like the building, the pyramid.” Speaking of the fund, Brewer said that it would be used for other projects in the area that would “compliment what we are already getting from the Dursts. In all of these large-scale developments, affordable housing is always a challenge.”

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“We are very pleased by the Land Use Committee’s unanimous support for the project and we look forward to the full Council’s vote next week,” added Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for Durst Fetner.

The developer will also convert a self-storage property on the corner of West 58th Street and 11th Avenue into a complex of 100 apartment units, 20 percent of them affordable. [Crain’s] —Hiten Samtani