NB building review: Sept. most active month for newly filed resi units since 2020, with 4,268

By Atticus O’Brien-Pappalardo

Last month new building plans were filed calling for the construction of 4,268 residential dwelling units, the most filed in any month since the start of 2020. For the quarter, plans were filed for the construction of 9,871 residential units, the highest quarterly total since the start of last year.

Of the 10 largest buildings filed this year in terms of residential units, six were filed in Q3.

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.

There was just over 4 million square feet of new construction filed for last month, the second most of any month this year, behind only July’s total of 4.19 million square feet. The total for Q3 was 10.8 million square feet, the second highest quarterly total since the start of last year, behind only Q2 of 2020.

For the square feet figures, 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.

There was only one plan for a hotel (R-1) building in Q3, pre-filed on August 11 by Mason Chen. The plans called for the construction of an 82,365-square-foot mixed-use building with 92 hotel rooms and 22 apartments, at 25-10 42nd Road in Long Island City. For comparison, there were nine hotel plans filed in Q1 for a total of 1,151 units and six hotel plans filed in Q2 for a total of 2,344 units.

As with recent new building analyses, PincusCo only looked at new building plans that were made public on the DOB NOW Open Data site during the third quarter. Due to perceived delays with the New York City Department of Buildings’ new DOB NOW: Build platform, the figures may be slightly skewed.

For the largest projects planned in July, please view the monthly analysis here.

The five largest projects planned in August and September called for just over 2.8 million square feet of new construction. Two of the five largest new developments were in Brooklyn, Two were in Queens, and one was in Manhattan.

All of the top five plans in the two month period called for residential or mixed-use residential buildings, with a total of 2,818 dwelling units.

The largest plans of the period, filed by CIM Group on September 7, called for the construction of a 1,313-unit, 1,274,276-square-foot building with a shared base and two towers at 261 South Street, on the Two Bridges waterfront of the Lower East Side. L+M Development Partners is also part of the development team for the project.

The plans represent the largest building, by count of dwelling units, filed in the last 10 years.

The 761-foot-tall, 73-story building will join Starrett Development’s plans from July 28 for the construction of a 1,021-unit, 848,729-square-foot building at 259 Clinton Street. The developers, along with JDS Development Group, are all planning large developments in the area which could bring approximately 3,000 units to the neighborhood.

The second largest plans were filed by Peter Papamichael’s Vorea Group, on August 19. The plans call for the construction of a 125-foot-tall, 12-story, 443,449-square-foot mixed-use building at 2-33 50th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens.

The plans call for the construction of the fourth most residential units in the city this year and the second most in Queens. PincusCo broke news of the developer being in contract to buy the development site from Fortress Storage in October of last year.

JEMB Realty Corporation was behind the third largest plans. On September 16 the developer filed a permit application for the construction of a 145-foot-tall, 13-story, 375-unit, 308,136-square-foot mixed-use building at 11 Ocean Parkway in Kensington, Brooklyn.

The estimated job cost for the project is listed at $20 million. Of new building plans that populated that portion of the permit application, these plans listed the sixth highest total so far this year.

The fourth largest plans were filed on September 21 by Lonicera Partners. The plans call for the construction of a 314-unit, 244,085-square-foot mixed-use building at 15 Hanover Place in Downtown Brooklyn. According to the plans, the building will have multiple retail spaces.

Rounding out the top five were Grubb Properties’ plans, pre-filed on August 23, for the construction of a 214-foot-tall, 17-story, 317-unit, 240,611-square-foot mixed-use building at 41-34 27th Street in Long Island City, Queens.

The plans represent the first new building plans in the city for the North Carolina-based firm.