Riverdale, Flushing, East Williamsburg most active for new development in first half of 2021

By Atticus O’Brien-Pappalardo

At the midway point of 2021, PincusCo is taking a look at which neighborhoods have had the most new development activity planned this year.

PincusCo looked at all plans for new buildings greater than 15,000 square feet in size filed with the New York City Department of Buildings through June 11. The analysis did not include plans for single-family buildings.

Riverdale, the Bronx, had the most plans filed of any neighborhood, with nine. The largest plans filed in Riverdale, in terms of square footage, was DBI Project’s plan for an 85-foot-tall, six-story, 94,917-square-foot school building at 2720 Jerome Avenue. Ahkilah Johnson filed the plans on January 8 of this year, with Marvel Architects listed as the architect.

DBI is also behind plans for a 74-foot tall, six-story, 78,450-square-foot school building at 1504 Macombs Road in Highbridge, the Bronx. The plans were filed in November of 2020. So far this year there have been three new building plans filed in the neighborhood.

Richard Hertz, through the company 189 & 193 East 205th Realty LLC, filed plans for the most residential units in Riverdale over the span on February 23. The plans called for the construction of a 74-foot tall, eight-story, 88-unit, 48,731-square-foot residential building at 189 East 205th Street in the neighborhood. The average size of the units will be 553 square feet, according to a calculation of the figures in the application.

Spaxel was behind the second most residential units planned in the neighborhood. The developer filed plans on March 1 for the construction of a 113-foot tall, 12-story, 49,654-square-foot residential building with 73 dwelling units at 2702 Creston Avenue in Riverdale.

Spaxel, which is led by Granit Gjonbalaj, also has several other active projects in the borough. Last fall the developer filed plans for a 115-foot tall, 13-story, 31,253-square-foot residential building with 46 dwelling units at 1695 Monroe Avenue in Tremont and an 80-foot tall, eight-story, 59,292-square-foot residential building with 74 dwelling units at 16 Wade Square in Tremont.

Tremont has also been a hub of development activity so far this year, with eight plans filed so far, tied for second most in both the borough and the city as a whole.

Flushing was the most popular neighborhood for new developments in Queens, where plans for eight new buildings were filed over the first half of 2021. PincusCo wrote a spotlight on the neighborhood last week, noting that developers with low profiles were behind the bulk of new construction projects there. Jianfei Chen was behind the largest plans, filed on June 9, which called for the construction of a 167-foot tall, 16-story, 204,163-square-foot mixed-use building with 202 hotel units and 150 residential units at 133-25 37th Avenue in Flushing.

Other significant filings included plans for a 123-foot tall, 12-story, 46,055-square-foot hotel building with 154 rooms at 131-28 40th Road filed by Margaret Ling on February 1 and plans for an 82-foot tall, eight-story, 94-unit, 74,405-square-foot mixed-use building at 71-82 Parsons Boulevard from A&R Properties Group on January 27.

Seven plans have been filed in East Williamsburg thus far, making it the most active neighborhood in Brooklyn to this point. Most of that development is due to five plans filed by Simon Dushinsky’s Rabsky Group at a site which was purchased for $12.8 million in 2012 from Pfizer. Together, the plans call for the construction of 360 residential units and 672,000 square feet of new construction. The buildings have the addresses of 352 Wallabout Street, 342 Wallabout Street, 330 Wallabout Street, 322 Wallabout Street, and 11 Gerry Street in East Williamsburg.

The other filings were plans for a 62-foot tall, six-story, 18,255-square-foot residential building with 24 units at 241 Conselyea Street from Salvatore Gargano and plans for a 55-foot tall, five-story, 30,344-square-foot mixed-use building with 24 units at 89 Throop Avenue by Chaim Deutsch.

According to the analysis, no neighborhood in Manhattan has had more than two plans for new buildings filed to this point. The neighborhoods that have had more than one plan filed are Midtown West, Central Harlem, Inwood, Garment District, and Gramercy.

Highlighting the group of filings are:

Extell Development’s plans for a 400-key, 208,962-square-foot mixed-use hotel at 201 West 54th Street and a 670-key, 242,759-square-foot, mixed-use hotel building at 1710 Broadway in Midtown West, L+M Development Partners’ and the National Black Theater’s plan for a 222-unit, 203,519-square-foot mixed-use building at 2033 5th Avenue Central Harlem, Artimus NYC’s plans for a 140-unit, 99,207-square-foot residential building at 22 Cumming Street in Inwood, and B&F Management’s plan for a 121-unit, 80,250-square-foot residential building at 12 East 37th Street in the Garment District.