The family that owns a 13-acre site on the Long Island City waterfront is planning to build a $3 billion mixed-use project with 5,000 apartments and more than 300,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
The grandchildren of Louis Pfohl, a Midwest engineer who in 1938 founded Plaxall Realty, are seeking to rezone the area on the man-made Anable Basin to make way for the megaproject, the New York Times reported.
It would include an apartment tower stretching about 700 feet tall, or about 70 stories.
Under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, the project would set aside 25 percent of its 4,995 apartments – which would be a mix of condominiums and rentals – at below-market rates.
Plaxall may sell a stake in the project to a developer before construction starts, but the company acknowledges that “it is certainly not in our best interests to cash out with the first offer we get,” according to Tony Pfohl.
The owners hired Jonathan Drescher, a former executive at the Durst Organization, to manage the process.
The project is similar to TF Cornerstone’s development nearby on a piece of land owned by the city at 44th Drive, where the developer plans to build 1,000 apartments and 100,000 square feet of light manufacturing space. [NYT] – Rich Bockmann