Total square feet filed for new building projects in NYC falls in June

By Atticus O’Brien-Pappalardo

There was a significant drop off in the total square feet of projects filed with the NYC Department of Buildings last month. The total square feet of all new building (NB) filings dropped from 5.4 million in May to 2.2 million in June, nearly a 60 percent decrease. The total was the second lowest so far this year, and 35 percent below the average so far this year. Only the 2.1 million square feet filed in January was lower. 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.

Although the total square feet of the projects dropped, the number of projects remained steady through the second quarter. New York City developers filed 108 new construction plans in June, a drop off from the 151 new plans which were filed in May, but consistent with the 107 plans filed in April. The number of filings is the third highest since the start of 2019. The only months with more were May, where filings were driven up due to changes to the New York City Energy Conservation Code, and June of 2019, where filings were driven up by a 421a tax exemption.

Over 82 percent of the plans were filed in the first 18 days of June.

Just as with total square footage, there was a large drop off in the total residential units across all filings. The 1,581 units filed in June were significantly down from the 3,813 units in April and 3,705 units in May. Once again, the total was the second lowest so far in 2020, only January had fewer total residential units, with 1,416.

In April, 14 plans were filed calling for buildings larger than 100,000-square-feet. Five of those called for buildings larger than 300,000-square-feet. In May, there were 10 plans filed for buildings larger than 100,000-square-feet. Four of those were larger than 200,000-square-feet and two were larger than 500,000-square-feet. Last month, there were only six plans filed for buildings larger than 100,000-square-feet. No plans called for buildings 200,000-square-feet or larger.

The decline of plans calling for larger buildings caused the drop off total square footage for the month. It wasn’t only a decline in the largest filings, there was also a drop off of moderate sized buildings. In June over half of the plans filed called for buildings smaller than 5,000-square feet. Comparably, in May, 102 of the 151 plans filed called for buildings greater than 5,000-square feet.

With that being said, the five largest plans filed in June, which called for 874,181-square-feet of total construction, were significant and noteworthy.

Shorewood Real Estate Group was responsible for the largest plan of the month when, on June 18, it filed a permit application for construction of a 233-unit, 195,548-square-foot mixed-use building at 1100 Myrtle Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

The second largest project came from Extell Development on June 18. Extell filed a permit application for construction of a 164-foot tall, 10-story, 194,552-square-foot office building at 740 Eighth Avenue in Times Square. The plans identify 11 tax lots that will be part of the development site.

SL Green Realty filed the third largest plans on June 17, calling for construction of a 178,299-square-foot building at 15 Beekman Street in the Financial District. Pace University signed a 30-year lease for an undisclosed price to occupy the entire building back in March. SL Green has built buildings for Pace University in the past, at 33 Beekman Street in 2015 and 180 Broadway in 2013.

The fourth largest plans were filed by the Michaels Organization, calling for construction of a 227-unit, 176,121-square-foot mixed-use building at 111 Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn.

Rounding out the top five is Lions Group, who on June 5 filed a permit application for construction of a 129,661-square-foot office building at 37-16 Union Street in Flushing.