Manhattan Borough Board approves Radson’s slaughterhouse towers

Project at 495 11th Avenue to include 350 affordable units

Render of 495 Eleventh Avenue (FXCollaborative with GKA)
Render of 495 Eleventh Avenue (FXCollaborative with GKA)

A former Hell’s Kitchen slaughterhouse site is on its way to a transformation.

The Manhattan Borough Board approved a New York City Economic Development Corporation project that will bring affordable housing — in addition to a hotel, office space and a supermarket — to Midtown Manhattan.

Radson Development and Kingspoint Heights will develop 495 11th Avenue to bring two towers — set to stand 56 and 57 stories tall, respectively – between West 39th and West 40th streets.

The project will include 350 units of affordable housing. Seventy-five of the units will be supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals and families, providing supportive services to be managed by the Center for Urban Community Services.

“This project will provide much-needed affordable housing and services for some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers, and will strengthen the business and the tourism sectors, which are key to the City’s economy and recovery from the COVID crisis,” NYCEDC President and CEO Rachel Loeb said in a statement.

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Plans for the approximately 700,000-square-foot project were filed in October, marking the city’s third-largest filing this year, according to a TRD analysis.

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The site was once home to the New York Butchers’ Dressed Meat Company after it was constructed in the 20th Century and remained operational until the late 1950s.

In 1975, after a period of unpaid taxes by its owner, the city took over the property. A private developer had planned to build an office building on the site in the 1980s, but the vote to allow it was delayed by then-Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins. The plans were ultimately abandoned.

Community Board Four sought unsuccessfully to have the property designated as a landmark in the late 1980s. However, the building was found to be structurally unsound and was demolished. It has remained an NYPD parking lot ever since.