Demolitions fall at start of 2021, signaling continued slow construction
By Atticus O’Brien-Pappalardo
The number of demolitions filed during the first six weeks of 2021 was lower than the number filed during the same period of 2020. And last year the city had the fewest number of demolition plans filed since 2012.
Through February 19 of 2021, there were 187 demolition plans filed across the city.
The 187 total plans filed is nearly a 25 percent decline from the number of plans that were filed at this point in 2020, a year which saw the sharpest decline in filings from one year to the next since the last recession.
Despite the decline, there were high-profile filings. Among the most notable were Boston Properties’ plans to demolish three office buildings at 341 to 347 Madison Avenue in Grand Central. The developer plans to eventually build an office skyscraper at the site, although no plans have been filed yet.
For historical context, PincusCo looked at all demolition plans filed in the city since 2000.
Since the start of 2000, there have been more than 45,300 demolition plans filed in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. Demo plans filed in Brooklyn and Queens accounted for nearly 70 percent of the total.
Last year plans were filed for 1,423 demolitions, which comprised a total of 1,822 residential units.
The historical data for the number of residential units in the demolition filings did not appear reliable, so it was removed from the multi-year analysis.
In 2020, developers filed 465 of those plans in Brooklyn, followed by 431 in Queens, 221 in Staten Island, 207 in the Bronx, and 99 in Manhattan. Plans for the most residential units to be demolished were filed in the Bronx with 479, followed by 463 in Brooklyn, 375 in Queens, 302 in Manhattan, and 203 in Staten Island. While the number of filings was lower than the yearly average since the start of the century in all five boroughs, there were still several of significance.
The plans to demolish the most residential units in 2020 was pre-filed by Phipps Houses on October 20. The plans called for the demolition of a six-story, 60-foot tall residential building with 169 apartments at 2094 Boston Road in the West Farms neighborhood in the Bronx. Phipps filed new building plans on February 25 for a 320,948-square-foot residential building with 279 dwelling units, which will replace the demolished property.
Adam Weinstein, president and CEO of Phipps Houses, said in an email to PincusCo that the project was part of a multi-phase redevelopment of the Lambert Houses complex, which the affordable developer built in the middle of the last century.
The redevelopment plan, which kicked off in 2013, came after many years and millions of dollars invested by Phipps in an attempt to solve several fundamental design flaws in the complex’s original buildings, which the firm planned in the 1960s and built in the early 1970s. For example, the open layout made security extremely difficult, aspects of the construction were poor, and even unseen elements had an impact, such as undersized sewer mains.
The time and money spent led to the realization that Lambert’s main advantage – “13 acres of underbuilt land with great transit access and a very lovely location” – was not being capitalized on. From there, the developer embarked on a multi-year plan to rezone, relocate, demolish, and rebuild the complex.
Because the project was carried out in multiple phases, Phipps was able to relocate active tenants to other buildings which had been completed in earlier portions of the project. When finished, the full project will have added roughly 1,000 affordable units to the complex’s existing 731.
In 2016, the New York Times reported that the entire project would result in a $600 million overhaul of the original complex.
The Phipps Houses project was not the only one that sought to demolish and rebuild residential units. Services for the Underserved filed plans to demolish the second most residential units of the year on May 13. The plans called for the demolition of a three-story, 38-foot-tall building with 88 dwelling units. The nonprofit filed plans for a 436,185-square-feet, 316-unit, residential building on February 18, 2020. The new building will have 250,591-square-feet of residential space and 185,594-square-feet of commercial space.
Another noteworthy filing came from Rudin Management in March of 2020. The firm filed plans on March 2, 2020 calling for the demolition of the 228,064-square-foot 415 Madison Avenue in the Plaza District. While no new building plans have been officially filed, reports stated that the developer was looking to construct a new tower, with access to the planned extension of the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central.
Other demolitions have been filed, and even completed, without new building plans following them. In January of 2020 WellLife Network filed plans to demolish a 31-foot tall, three-story building with 18 dwelling units at 81-5 Cypress Avenue in Queens. The demo was completed in April of last year, but new building plans have yet to be filed.
And in early 2018, Domain Companies acquired two Gowanus parcels at 420 Carroll Street and 434 Carroll Street for $47.5 million. Two years later, in January of 2020, the developer filed plans to demolish two buildings at the properties. According to reports, The property at 420 Carroll Street was zoned to accommodate roughly 130,000-square-feet of commercial development around the time of purchase. However, no new building plans have been filed yet at either address.