April new building review: New construction plans spike with large hotel developments from Extell, Sutton, and more
By Atticus O’Brien-Pappalardo
The combined square feet of all new building projects filed with the city’s Department of Buildings increased significantly last month, rising to the fourth highest monthly total since the start of 2020. For the analysis, PincusCo used the total building square footage figures reported in the PW1 of new building filings. Because of this, prior reports on individual filings may differ slightly from figures here.
It also should be noted that the figures may be slightly skewed due to perceived delays with the New York City Department of Buildings’ new DOB NOW: Build platform. For example, plans filed by a Sam Chang affiliate for two hotels were made public on the DOB NOW Open Data site on April 2, with a filing date of April 2. However, the DOB NOW Public Portal indicates the plans have a “Filing Status Date” of March 16. For the sake of this analysis, PincusCo only included plans that were made public in April, meaning the above mentioned hotel plans were included, but other plans that were made public in May with “Filing Status Dates” in April were excluded.
The five largest plans called for 1,067,241 square feet of new construction. The sum was more than a 50 percent increase from the 457,783 square feet of new construction the five largest plans in March totaled. Three of the five largest new developments were in Manhattan, one was in Queens, and one was in Brooklyn.
Three of the buildings were hotels, in a month which saw several of the city’s prominent developers file hotel plans in response to a controversial proposal from Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city representatives which could greatly restrict hotel developments. The other two plans were for a garage and a mixed-use residential building. The buildings had a total of 1,493 dwelling units.
Gary Barnett’s Extell Development was responsible for the largest and third largest plans of the month. On April 21, the developer filed a permit application for construction of a 670-key 242,759-square-foot, mixed-use hotel building at 1710 Broadway in Midtown West, Manhattan. Then, days later on April 28, Extell filed a permit application for construction of a 400-key, 208,962-square-foot mixed-use hotel at 201 West 54th Street in Midtown West.
The plans were filed after years of anticipation, ever since the developer purchased a 39 percent stake in the site from C&K Properties for $247 million in late 2015.
Plans for the second largest building of the month came from the New York State Department of Transportation on April 29. The plans called for the construction of a 218,235-square-foot commercial garage building with community space at 80-25 126th Street in Kew Gardens, Queens. Urbahn Architects is listed as the architect for the project, which is estimated to cost $10 million.
The fourth largest plans, also a hotel, came from Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties on April 29. The plans called for construction of a 363-key, 176,375-square-foot commercial hotel building at 25 West 34th Street in the Garment District, Manhattan. The building will occupy one tax lot even as the zoning rights may come from two adjacent tax lots, 15 and 18, the filing indicated.
The building, which will be designed by SRA Architecture and Engineering, PC, will have retail space on the ground floor.
Rabsky Group was behind the fifth largest plans of the month. The developer filed plans on April 14 calling for the construction of a 60-unit 133,619-square-foot building at 330 Wallabout Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The plans were part of a flurry of developments filed for by the Rabsky Group. In total, they filed plans for a three-building, 180-unit assemblage in the neighborhood.
Fischer + Makooi Architects is listed as the architect for all three developments, which will occupy a site which Simon Dushinsky’s Rabsky Group purchased for $12.8 million in 2012 from Pfizer.
The five plans came during a month in which NYC developers filed for just under 3.2 million square feet of new construction. The total was over a 66 percent increase from the 1 million square feet of new construction filed for in March. The total was the highest so far this year and the fourth highest total since the start of 2020.
PincusCo looked at all new building (NB) filings of 2,000-square-feet and above. For residential buildings, the analysis covered those with four or more units, and did not include residential units in hotel (R-1) buildings.
The total number of residential units filed for in April also increased from the month prior, by 46 percent. The 1,423 units were up from 771 in March. The total did not factor in the 2,350 new hotel rooms filed for in Manhattan and Queens. Insiders said the flurry of hotel plans were likely a response to a special permit proposal from the Mayor that would only allow the construction of hotels if the proposed plans went through a public land use review.