Multifamily Filings Spike to 12-Year High in New York City

Developers flooded the city’s Department of Buildings with multifamily plans last month, pushing filings to their highest level in more than a decade.

Builders submitted applications for 11,984 apartment units in March, the largest monthly total in 12 years, according to a PincusCo analysis of DOB data. That’s the second-highest monthly tally in the past two decades, underscoring a sharp rebound in development activity despite lingering headwinds.

The surge was driven largely by new construction. Developers filed plans for 11,189 units across 137 new building applications, while another 795 units came from 14 conversion projects.

The last time filings reached a comparable level was September 2014, when more than 13,000 units were proposed.

The numbers come with caveats. Filings don’t always translate into completed projects, as plans can be revised, downsized or abandoned altogether. Still, the spike offers a snapshot of developer sentiment at a moment when the market is recalibrating.

A handful of megaprojects skewed the March total. The Moinian Group led the pack with a 1,458-unit proposal at 548 West 36th Street in Hudson Yards, along with a neighboring 300-unit filing at 550 West 36th Street. Combined, the structure will span 1.7 million square feet; Daniel Kaplan is the architect.

Vornado Realty Trust also made a sizable contribution, submitting plans for a 481-unit development at 484 Eighth Avenue in the Garment District. Steven Roth’s firm recently expanded its Penn District assemblage by acquiring a McDonald’s outpost for $12 million, along with roughly 66,000 square feet of air rights from neighboring properties for $9.2 million.

The concentration of large filings in core Manhattan submarkets suggests developers are still betting on scale and prime locations, even as construction costs and interest rates remain elevated.

Whether the filings translate into shovels in the ground is another question. But for now, March’s numbers point to a pipeline that’s suddenly a lot fuller and a development community that may be moving faster than the market’s recent uncertainty would suggest.

— Holden Walter-Warner