New building plans, influenced by energy code change, continued to climb in May

By Atticus O’Brien-Pappalardo

New construction plans filed with the city’s Department of Buildings continued to pour in last month. In total, 151 new plans were filed in May, up from 107 filed in April. The monthly total is the second highest since the start of 2019. The only month with more was June of 2019, when 168 plans were filed, partly due to 421a tax exemption. 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, other than residential units in hotel (R-1) buildings.

The total square feet of all NB filings also continued to rise last month. Developers filed plans for 5.4 million square feet of new construction in May, a 9 percent increase from April. May’s square feet total was the second highest in the last 16 months, once again only June of 2019 had a higher total.

Total residential units across all filings dipped slightly, however, from 3,813 in April to 3,705 in May. The total was still the second greatest so far in 2020 and the fourth greatest since the start of 2019.

The vast majority of last month’s filings, over 70%, came prior to changes to the New York City Energy Conservation Code (NYC ECC) which took effect on May 12. The new code mandates that new construction projects, as well as large renovations, be more sustainable and energy efficient. The code requires higher quality walls and windows to improve the building’s thermal envelope, improve insulation of balconies and parapets, and a variety of additional requirements.

Similarly, 73% of the total square feet of all NB plans in May were filed prior to the code change.

Jimmy Gandhi, founder of Nexus Consulting, a building code and zoning consulting company based in Midtown, explained that the change in code likely did not cause developers to file plans that weren’t already on the table, but was enough motivation to alter their timelines.

“I don’t know of any developers who decided to file out of the blue because of the code change. However, I am aware of developers who had plans lined up for May, June, and July, who accelerated the process to file under the prior code.”

Jeff Fox, executive vice president at Foxy Management, provided insight into how the code change impacted his plans, pre-filed May 7, for a 150-unit, 83,678-square-foot residential building at 1323 Boston Road in Morrisania.

“We had set a hard internal deadline several months ago to file our plans before the new energy code would have applied. This was in large part because the new code would likely have triggered additional cost to comply with, and also the fact that the design team is not fully up to speed on all of the details just yet. For us, the timing happened to work perfectly in that we were aiming to file in May anyway, so this just gave us a specific day in May to shoot for.”

Other developers said their projects were not impacted by the code change. A spokesperson for Atrides Holdings LLC, a joint venture between Pembroke Companies and Jim Simmons’ Asland Capital Partners, explained that the plans for their 154-unit, 101,351-square-foot residential building, pre-filed May 5, at 1940 Turnbull Avenue in the Bronx were part of a long term, multi-component project which “had already been in the works.”

The project will be 100 percent affordable housing for seniors and is currently on track to get underway this December, with an anticipated delivery date of summer 2023, the spokesperson said. They’ve also begun considering another affordable housing project, potentially with retail space, on the property’s additional lot, although no plans are currently in place.

Whether motivated by the code change or not, developers filed numerous projects of significant size in May, including ten that were larger than 100,000 square feet.

The largest filing of the month came after the code change, on May 21, when RXR Realty and LBA Logistics filed plans to construct a 736,867-square-feet Grand Logistics Center at 55-01 Grand Avenue in Maspeth, Queens.

Greenland USA, on May 5, filed plans for the second largest project of the month, a 682-unit, 584,686-square-foot residential building at 698 Atlantic Avenue in Prospect Heights.

Phipps Houses had the third and fifth largest plans of the month, both of which were filed on May 8. The larger of the two is for a 354-unit, 409,662-square-foot, 123-foot tall, 12-story, mixed-use building at 17-21 Redfern Avenue. The other calls for a 129-unit, 155,398-square-foot, 150-foot tall, 15-story, mixed-use building at 21-02 Mott Avenue. Both developments are part of the third phase of a multiphase project that will ultimately bring 1,650 affordable apartments and 115,000-square-feet of retail/CF space to Far Rockaway.

The fourth largest project of the month was filed by BFC Partners on May 5. The plans call for a 274-unit, 207,614-square-foot residential building at 475 Bay Street in Stapleton.