There are plans in the works to build what would be the tallest building by far on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side. NY1 has obtained documents about an ongoing battle to try to bring affordable housing to the site.<\/p>\n
However, the gap between what community leaders want and what the developer is offering is vast.<\/p>\n
For many decades, ABC’s campus on the Upper West Side was a hub for news and entertainment seen around the country.<\/p>\n
However, ABC sold its properties in the neighborhood a few years ago. And recently, the developer of the several parcels told Community Board 7 what he would like to see built.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 1,200-foot-tall building,\u201d said Gary Barnett, Extell\u2019s founder. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re planning to.\u201d<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Developer Gary Barnett of Extell has proposed a 1,200-foot residential tower on the former ABC campus, which would be the tallest building on the Upper West Side
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The project\u2019s current zoning does not require affordable housing, though community leaders are pushing for 30% of the space to be income-restricted
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Extell\u2019s initial offer included just 121 affordable units, most of them studios for seniors \u2014 far less than what the community board requested
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The Department of City Planning has resisted rezoning the site, which would trigger mandatory affordable housing requirements<\/p>\n
A 1,200-foot apartment building would be nearly the size of the Empire State Building. That would be significantly higher than the two tallest towers on the Upper West Side.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s not much that can be done to stop what could be the ninth-tallest building in Manhattan. But there\u2019s a reason he was at that May meeting: to get community support.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe in affordable. I do think we can afford it in this deal with some help,\u201d said Barnett. \u201cAnd so, we\u2019re ready to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Affordable housing is the big standoff for this massive project, mirroring the problem facing the city.<\/p>\n
The median rent in Manhattan has sharply risen about 8% from last September to this September, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel.<\/p>\n
Making matters worse, rents are at a near-record level in the borough.<\/p>\n
But the zoning for the former ABC campus does not require any affordable housing to be built and can go as high as 1,500 feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cExtell can do whatever they want,\u201d said Council Member Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side. \u201cTo their credit they\u2019ve said let\u2019s see what the neighborhood wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Negotiations with Extell have been ongoing about affordable housing, she told NY1.<\/p>\n
The first offer from Extell came this summer, according to documents NY1 has reviewed, was 121 units. Out of that, 103 were studios. Most of them would have been reserved for seniors.<\/p>\n
The offer is about 7% to 10% of square footage being for affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Brewer says she\u2019d like to see that number at 30%.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re going to have to have a much longer discussion,\u201d said Brewer.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Community Board 7 approved a resolution to call for just 30% of the square footage, which could yield about 400 units, along with calling for the Department of City Planning to consider rezoning the property.<\/p>\n
If that happened, it would trigger what\u2019s called Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. That\u2019s a 2016 policy that requires \u201cany new building, enlargement or conversion above 10 units or 12,500 square feet must include a set percentage of permanently income-restricted affordable housing,\u201d according to a city document.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to reviewing Community Board 7\u2019s resolution and working with all stakeholders on the future of this site,\u201d said a DCP spokesperson in an email to NY1.<\/p>\n
But in the spring, that possible rezoning was something the executive director of DCP told the community board it would not do.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a policy perspective, there\u2019s a question about appropriateness,\u201d said Edith Hsu-Chen at the time. \u201cIf government swoops in and rezones one property.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agency\u2019s focus, she said then, is on rezoning entire areas. And in that same meeting, Gary Barnett was asked point-blank whether he would support rezoning.<\/p>\n
His answer: no.<\/p>\n
So without any changes, Extell is effectively free to do as it pleases \u2014 even walking away from any affordable housing negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad to do it. At 30%,\u201d said Brewer at that spring community board meeting to Barnett.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. I\u2019m not going to sit down. If that\u2019s the starting point, I\u2019m not sitting down,\u201d Barnett responded.<\/p>\n
But Brewer, in a later interview with NY1, said she\u2019s confident Barnett is going to have to listen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m one of those people who never gives up. I\u2019m like a dog with a bone. Also you should know he has many, many other proposals that are going to come before the City Planning Commission and I hope they will say to him, listen you will have to deal with us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When asked if that means whether future projects that need city approval could be at risk if he isn\u2019t willing to negotiate on this one, she responded: \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m hoping for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are plans in the works to build what would be the tallest building by far on Manhattan\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2908,25,3801,2907,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-3361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-app-housing","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-eric-feldman","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-manhattan","13":"tag-manhattan-headlines","14":"tag-manhattan-news","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}