Early in January 2017 the City of New York began the official public approval process for a proposal to rezone East Midtown Manhattan. The proposal was based in part on a report by the East Midtown Steering Committee co-chaired by the Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and the District 4 Council Member Daniel Garodnick.
The new 2017 proposal is the third proposal for rezoning East Midtown. In 2013 the Bloomberg Administration proposed to rezone East … <Read More>
City Officials and developer broke ground on the new One Vanderbilt office building and $220 million transit upgrade of Grand Central. On October 18, 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Council Member Dan Garodnick joined the developer SL Green for the on-site groundbreaking ceremony. The new office tower will reach 1,401 feet and cover the city block west of Grand Central. The tower is expected to achieve … <Read More>
Owner of Grand Central Terminal claims violation of property rights, seeks $1 billion in damages. On September 28, 2015, Andrew Penson—the owner of Grand Central Terminal in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan—initiated a lawsuit against New York City for allegedly unlawfully taking Grand Central’s air rights from him for the benefit of SL Green Realty Corporation without just compensation, which is a violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The complaint … <Read More>
Proposal returns to City Planning with additional infrastructure improvements. On May 5, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises voted to modify and approve the proposed One Vanderbilt skyscraper project and Vanderbilt Corridor rezoning plan. (See previous CityLand coverage here.) The proposal as approved now includes a second transit hall on 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, as well as a 22 percent increase in the below-grade pedestrian space. The below-grade increase allows … <Read More>
(Re: Council Subcommittee Hears Testimony on One Vanderbilt, Apr. 20, 2015)
Dear CityLand:
At the public hearing before the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises of the Land Use Committee of the City Council last Monday, 13 April, the applicants and supporters of the proposed Vanderbilt Corridor and One Vanderbilt outnumbered those with reservations about the proposals. They spoke for most of the four hours – the opposition, at two minutes apiece, used 15 or … <Read More>
Representatives of the project and the Department of City Planning spoke during a four-hour hearing. On April 13, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held a public hearing on One Vanderbilt, a proposed 1,450-foot commercial tower in East Midtown, as well as an accompanying proposal to rezone five blocks of Vanderbilt Avenue to create the Vanderbilt Corridor. The building will be located adjacent to Grand Central Terminal, bounded by East 42nd Street … <Read More>