July Rezoning Roundup: Three applications could bring nearly 2M sf of new dev

By Atticus O’Brien-Pappalardo

Last week Manhattan Community Board 2 resoundingly voted to reject the Soho/Noho rezoning that is being pushed by the de Blasio administration.

While the Board does not have the ability to actually stop the rezoning, and the vote is simply a recommendation, it is still an obstacle for the public proposal which will eventually be decided in part by City Council members. Several members made their positions clear, citing the lack of guaranteed affordable housing in the plan as the reason for their disapproval.

The City Planning Commission has the ability to have a hearing regarding the proposed rezoning early next month.

While the city anxiously awaits the decision, PincusCo is taking a look back at some of the most significant private rezoning applications reported over the last month, which now await decisions from the Department of City Planning, the City Planning Commission, the City Council, and other agencies.

Webster Leasing LLC filed an application seeking discretionary approvals from the City Planning Commission (CPC) to facilitate the redevelopment of a 4.65‐acre development site in Wakefield, the Bronx. The application seeks rezoning from M1-1 to R7-1/C2-4, a large-scale general development in order to facilitate the construction of six buildings totaling 1.17 million gross square feet at the site, which will be called Wakefield Village.

According to the filing, the developments would have a combined 1.07 million gross square feet of residential space with approximately 1,262 residential dwelling units, all of which would be income-restricted. There would be a total of 27,746 gross square feet of retail space; 13,484 gross square feet of community facility space, 55,846 gross square feet of accessory space including common areas, and approximately 130,097 square feet of publicly-accessible open space.

Meanwhile in another neighborhood in the Bronx, JCAL Development Group was behind an application seeking rezoning which would also facilitate multiple buildings. According to the application, the zoning map and zoning text amendments could lead to the development of four buildings totaling 324,082 square feet of floor area and 339 dwelling units in Schuylerville.

The four buildings will be on sites that involve parts of Block 5312, Block 5309, Block 5306, and Block 5307. In total, the 20 lots that compose the development sites include 103,119 square feet of lot area. The eastern portion of the area fronts on Bruckner Boulevard and is bounded on the east by Crosby Avenue and the west by Revere Avenue. The western portion of the area also fronts on Bruckner Boulevard south of Gifford Avenue and east of Balcom Avenue.

A third large rezoning application for multiple buildings was for Brooklyn, and came from Osborn Belmont Properties LLC at parcels owned by the Fedele family in the Brownsville neighborhood. The filing seeks approval of zoning map and zoning text amendments to facilitate the development of a 157,089-square-foot mixed-use building and a 139,340-square-foot mixed-use building.

According to the application, the buildings would have a total of 149 dwelling units and over 47,500-square feet of commercial space.

ABCNY was also behind a significant rezoning application. The developer sought to rezone a development site in anticipation of submitting an application for the construction of a 25-story, 120,040-square-foot mixed-use hotel building with 305 rooms at 58-62 East 125th Street in East Harlem.